Japan

More Nara

A Byrd

— 3 min read
More Nara

On Tuesday we took the train to Nara (about an hour from Kyoto) to visit the famous bowing deer in Nara Park. You can read about that gorgeous experience in J's post.

Next, we walked to Tōdai-ji, a Buddhist temple originally built in the mid-700s (note that's the 700s, not the 1700s!). It has burned down twice since then, with the current structure being built in the Edo period. It's one of the largest wooden structures in the world and houses a 15m-tall Buddha statue. We didn't pay to enter so didn't end up seeing that!

These full-sized replicas of the giant Buddha's hands were near the temple.

This is Tōdai-ji Namdaimon (Grand South Gate), which we passed under when approaching the temple...

The gate as seen when walking towards the temple.
An enormous statue inside the gate (note person at bottom right for size comparison).
Looking up while passing under the gate.
This statue was opposite the first one.
Tōdai-ji Chumon (Central Gate), which forms part of the wall/fence around the temple.

And this is the temple itself (as viewed through the fence in the photos above)...

A few more photos from the vicinity as we left...

Afterwards, we had lunch at a konbini — the first time we'd actually eaten our konbini meals at a konbini rather than at our accommodation. The checkout operator microwaved our meals for us, and we ate them at some tables opposite the shop.

Then we rode the train back to Kyoto for the rest of our day's sightseeing plans... to be shared in the next post!

These were the manhole covers in Nara. 😍
Sometimes they were coloured! We're not sure whether some are made this way or whether people paint them. (We saw some painted ones in Tokyo too.)

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