Todaiji (and Nara)

On day 6, I decided to venture out of Kyoto proper once again. One of the most well known areas near Kyoto is a city called Nara, the one-time capital of Japan and absolutely chock-full of famous sites. In particular, Nara is famous for its deer park and the temples within it, especially Todaiji. It was this monument that was my main goal for the day. The temple is very old, 8th century (when Buddhism was just beginning to take hold in Japan), although it was rebuilt repeatedly due to fire and earthquakes. The main hall now dates to the early 18th century, but the statues are older. Below you can see the main gate leading to Todaiji. I like how old it looks; it's very pretty.

This is one of the guardian statues in the main gate. Very well known statues, and I was happy with how this picture came out. Unfortunately the statues all now have netting over them, to keep out birds and animals, etc. These statues are absolutely enormous, by the way.

Here is a deer. Todaiji is set, as previously mentioned, in the famous Deer Park of Nara, called such because it is full of deer. They are very tame, because everyone who comes there feeds them, and practically everyone in Japan comes there at one point or another! You can walk right up to them and pet them, or they will come up to you themselves, wanting food. I find it a little creepy. When I was there, one of the deer (a male with his horns cut off) headbutted this small elementary school child. It was a tad alarming; I do hope he was alright.

They look so innocent... Don't be fooled.

Now, below you can see the main hall of Todaiji. I'm not sure if you can quite see from this picture, but it is enormous. It is almost impossible to overstate its hugeness. It is said to be the largest wooden structure in the world, and I wouldn't doubt it. Inside, the posts that support the roof are huge, trunks as thick as giant redwoods.

You can tell how huge it is--once you got closer, you couldn't even take in the whole building, it was just too big to fit in your camera. Todaiji is very famous, as you can see from the hordes of school children pictured below (they are the ones in black, in their little uniforms.)

Unfortunately, it was dark inside, and I couldn't get any proper pictures. However, there is an enormous Buddha statue inside. It's quite impressively huge. There are also a number of very large guardian statues, beautifully carved. It's really neat. There's also a famous hole in one of the aforementioned enormous posts, which people try to wiggle through--if you can get through, it is said, you will go to heaven/be enlightened/etc. Mostly only children can get through--I sure as heck didn't want to give it a try...

After visiting the main hall, I explored the rest of the area. I visited a museum/treasure hall with a number of interesting states, but no pictures were allowed, of course.

Below you can see a bell tower that I stumbled upon up in the hills. There were also a bunch of restaurants, ice cream shops, and souvenir shops up there too! Convenient, I suppose. I ended up buying a Todaiji Hello Kitty keitai strap, I have to admit...

Yes, the deer are everywhere.

After leaving Todaiji, I decided to make a brief stop at the local museum. There was actually a really famous temporary exhibit going on at the time--only happened once a year or something. But the line was huge, and I had a schedule to keep! So I just visited the normal, permanent museum, which had no line at all. In fact, you bought your ticket from a vending machine. God bless Japan! It was a really nice museum, with informative labels in English and lots of interesting art.

After that, I moved on to Horyuji...