4/18/08 Nara

I took the train to Nara from Osaka this morning. Nara is fantastic. The city itself is small. Nara has 8 Unesco world heritage sites and its really easy to navigate on foot. It was pretty rainy today but that didn't take away from thoroughly enjoying Nara. I started at Kofuku-Ji which was transferred from Kyoto in 710. It has 2 pagodas- one of which is the second highest in Japan. The video below is inside the temple.




Next I grabbed some lunch at Shizuka which serves a Nara specialty called kamameshi- which is rice served in an iron pot with veggies, fish, and meat. It was fantastic. The rice sort of gets burned on the edge and its very tasty.

There are tons and tons of deer in Nara and they are overly friendly. Vendors sell food to give to them which probably only adds to there lack of fear of humans. I thought they were bad in Miyajima.

Next I headed to the famous Todai-ji. It was unbelievable- it has the largest wooden building in the world and contains a huge statue of the Buddha that is over 52 feet tall. It also contains a bunch of other large statues and I can't remember who they are of. I bought a charm which is for "success and victory." which should ensure lots of success in the new job!











I checked out Sangatsu-do Hall and Nigatsu Hall. Then I went to the Kasuga Taisha shrine which is lined with hundreds of lanterns- it is amazing- see above video.

Nara is also famous for some pickles- made with sake curds- they are great so I bought some to bring home. The shopkeepers were really sweet.