Nara

Often it's the part of trip that we least plan that delight us the most, perhaps because our experiences aren't fraught with expectations, perhaps because it's an instance of all the stars aligning, who knows, but the little town of Nara was one of those surprises. Our time in Japan was running out, so we decided to take a detour on our last travel day and spend some of it in Nara, which we had read and been told was beautiful. Sometimes it can be a mistake to add on a destination in an attempt to suck the marrow, but this time it worked out, and we were able to see another little corner of this wonderful country in the time we had left.  Nara lies about an hour East of Osaka on a commuter rail spoke, and we headed there first thing in the morning, after we checked out of our hotel in Osaka,  We were able to store our luggage at the Tourist Info building just outside the Nara station.  It was going to rain off and on all day, but we found that the TI had loaner umbrellas, which is a great idea.  We each picked one, and headed out to the nearby temple park complex.

We saw more deer in Nara than we’d seen in Miyajima, including several different herds in the park.  We also saw a deer fountain (the water tumbles from a piece of bamboo in the deer’s mouth).

As the morning went on the rain picked up, but the scenery became even prettier with the increased contrast of rain-soaked trees and soil.  As long as you picked the path that the crowds and their view-blocking umbrellas didn't take, that is.

Many of the paths in the park were lined with stone lamp posts with paper-paned windows.  Those posts were largely capped with moss.

The paths led from one shrine to another; most shrines had a purification fountain nearby, so that you could wash before entering the shrine.

These were the most adorable fortune Nara deer available for purchase at the shrines. While they were cute, we opted to take photos instead of buying one.  At the counter nearby, we got a closer look at something we'd seen at other shrines in Japan, which was people who were collecting stamps from each shrine.  Japanese tourists would carry a book of blank pages, and in some locations, they would stamp the book themselves.  Here, they handed the book to someone at the counter, who very carefully stamped each book and handed it back.

The Todai-ji Temple was the largest we visited, with an enormous bronze statue of Buddha inside. The building itself, and all of the statutes inside were worth the trip alone.  The rain had really picked up by now.

The statute below was carved out of wood, one of a pair which guarded the gate outside the temple. The had been moved in out of the elements for their protection, although they looked fierce enough to ward off any weather.

The big bronze Buddha was quite a sight, stretching up 49 feet, 2 inches tall.

According to Wikipedia the face of the Buddha is 17 feet tall alone.

After bidding the Buddha farewell we wandered back toward the train station in the rain, peeking down alleyways and gardens as we tried to get a glimpse of everyday life, at least as much as you can as a foreign tourist.

While many of the cities had a unique design for their manhole covers, Nara's and Kyoto's were the prettiest we saw.

And just like that our magical interlude was over--we were back at the train station and on our way back to Tokyo via Kyoto on the bullet train.

Went spent two more days in Tokyo, but we already covered both legs of Tokyo in one of our first posts on Japan. It's taken us a while to get through these posts, but we loved our journey through Japan so much that it's definitely still a near memory. Hopefully we'll get back there some day. But since our return from Japan we've taken trips to Maui and Havana, so we have lots more adventures to share!