Nara

Two weeks ago Carl and I had a day off together, something that has become increasingly more rare as they keep throwing overtime at us, so we decided to get out of town and do something fun. We headed for Nara. Luckily our local station is on the Nara line out of town and 45 minutes later we found ourselves in the small quiet town of Nara.

First, a bit of history; Nara was the one of the first capitals of Japan from 710 - 784 AD. It is considered the cradle of Japanese culture, arts and crafts. It is also where Buddhism first flourished in Japan under the strong patronage of successive emperors and empresses. They sponsored magnificent temples and works of art, many of which have survived to this day. There are 7 cultural sites in Nara registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the world's largest bronze Buddha, the world's largest wooden building, and the world's oldest wooden building. You can hardly take a step in Nara without tripping over something precious. Or over deer droppings. On to the story.

We arrived in Nara on a hot, sunny, clear afternoon. After a quick orientation by the friendly lady at the tourist center, we were on our way. The closest Canadian equivalent we could think of for Nara is Banff. A beautiful little tourist town in the shadows of the mountains, at one with the wilderness. Except the mountains are closer to hills and in Nara you have to feed the deer.

After a short walk up a shopping street there was a small pond, filled with coi and turtles, flanked by a three and five story pagoda. To the right is an old arts and crafts market and up and to the left is Nara Park. Nara Park was created in 1880 as a reflective spot with which to contemplate the beautiful monuments that are on each edge of the park. To further enhance the scenic setting they filled the park with tama (not tame) deer, a symbol of Nara.

I was raised by a hunter. I was taught to respect the line between wilderness and humans. Animals are not people and should not be treated as such. Bambi was never watched in our house because deer don't talk to skunks and the only evil hunters are poachers and those who hunt irresponsibly with no respect for nature. So of course, one of the first things I did in Nara was buy a packet of deer cookies sold by the vendors. I love you dad!

The vendors are scattered every 20 feet and are surrounded by deer. Carl was very disappointed to find that the cookies were made for the deer and not from the deer. The second you approach a vendor the deer surround you. This is why people and wild animals should be kept separate. The second people become a source of food, they are no longer a source of fear. And that's when the people should be afraid, very very afraid. All around the park you see the dance of people buying cookies and then running in circles trying to feed and avoid the deer at the same time. If you don't feed every deer around you right away they start to get ... pushy. In this amusing series of shots you can see me attempting to feed the deer and not become deer food myself. Stop biting my shirt you short, sharp-toothed monster! There's skin there!! Hey!!!

Carl had a better idea. Buy the cookies after dark and sneak up to other deer not surrounding the vendors and feed the deer by stealth. Much less dangerous for all involved.

After the @#%! deer we moved across the park towards the highlight of Nara, Todai-ji Temple, the world's largest wooden building, housing the world's largest bronze buddha. The huge horned Daibatsu-den (Buddha house) is hard to describe other than saying it is truly awesome in every sense of the word. And it used to be bigger. After it burned down twice, it was finally rebuilt in 1692 at two-thirds the original size. The Daibutsu, great Buddha, is even more awe-inspiring. He represents the Cosmic Buddha who presides over the universe, and each level of reality is depicted on the lotus flower he sits on. Each petal of the lotus he sits on is 10 feet tall. He is also flanked by impressive guardian figures. In the back corner of the building, there is a small hole in the base of one of the pillars. The inside is smooth from people crawling through, because apparently going through it reserves you a place in paradise. A camel passing through the needle's eye, so to speak.

To the west, and further up the hill are more temples, which have fantastic views of the city. They also provided some welcome shade on a hot sunny day. We walked south from there to Kasuga Grand Shrine, an important place for Shinto worship. The paths around it are lined with more than 2000 huge stone lanterns. We circled down to the east side of the park and finally settled in a Mos Burger restaurant to admire the sunburns we'd each picked up. Finally, we bought some bread to attract the minnows and watch the turtles eat the minnows in the pond, as we waited for the sun to set.

After sunset the Nara lantern festival began. For two weeks every August the streets and hills around Nara are covered with thousands of small plastic lanterns holding floating candles. There are also numerous buckets of water around, just in case. The number of volunteer hours that must go into that each night is amazing. But it's worth it. It's truly lovely. The lanterns were arranged to form words on the higher hills and in patterns on the ground. There were large bronze arrangements and floating holders on the ponds. We wandered among families as they took pictures of their children in yukatas playing among the lanterns and the still hungry deer. And after another hour of wandering we took our tired feet home to bed. Another day and night in Japan.

To see all our pictures, click here.