Nara and Temples and Shrines

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Guess what, Lucy started us again at 8:15 – is ok? What can we say – of course, Lucy, we will be ready to go! So off we went to the countryside to the town of Nara. Founded in 710, it became one of Asia’s most splendid cities in its 74-year spell as Japan’s first capital. It became the grand diocese of Buddhism and the far eastern destination of the Silk Road.

Nara Park has over 1,000 tame (very tame) deer. We all feed them the “cookie crackers” you could buy to feed them. They are regarded as messengers of the gods. The main item to see here is the Todai-ji Temple which houses the “Great Buddha.” The body is 50 ft. tall!

Walking from the Great Buddha, (of course, uphill) we went to the Kasuga Grand Shrine which has over 3,000 stone and bronze lanterns. We saw a wedding taking place as well as several families in another part dedicating their children. It is great when we are able to see the “people life” activities taking place.

We had a good lunch and we are both getting pretty good at chopsticks! After lunch it was off to see the Kofukuji Temple with a five-story pagoda. It is 164 ft. tall making it the 2^nd tallest in Japan. Then one more shrine – Fushimi Inari – we only went to the entrance. By this time we were “shrined-out” and it was starting to rain plus it was all uphill the rest of the way. This was the shrine of a 1,000 gates and we did not want to see them all!

We got back to the hotel around 5 and had dinner on our own. I had Lucy write on a piece of paper “plain cheeseburger” and we headed down the street to McDonalds. The girl smiled and chuckled when I handed her the piece of paper AND I got what I wanted!!!