Nara: land of people-eating deer pets

Our day trip to Nara didn't begin with the best luck.  We woke up late and took our sweet time digesting yummy crepes and window shopping.  Although, even if we had gotten to the station earlier, it wouldn't have helped.  The train for Nara was delayed and then it was canceled!  Luckily, they switched tracks and we were able to get on our way, but only after waiting around for an hour.

We arrived in Nara around two in the afternoon and our luck hadn't improved - it was raining.  But the rain didn't dampen our spirits; we were too excited to see all of Nara's fascinating culture and check out those famous deer!  We learned that in early Japanese history, the nation's capital was moved to a new site each time the previous emperor died (bad spirits and whatnot).  However in 710, Nara became the first permanent Japanese capital...not that it turned out to be very permanent.  After only 74 years, the capital was moved, first to Nagaoka, and shortly thereafter to Kyoto, where it remained for more than 1,000 years!  But what's important about those 74 years, however, is that during this period was the birth of Japan's arts, crafts, and literature, as Nara imported everything from religion to art and architecture from China.  Even the city itself is laid out in a rectangular grid pattern from Chinese concepts (Frommers.com).

We thought about going on a walking tour of the city, but decided to follow the deer instead.  According to the legend of Kasuga Shrine, a mythological god arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital.  Since then the deer have been regarded as heavenly animals and are protected by the city and country.  This is awesome!  There are hundreds of deer just wandering around the city and they are completely tame!  Well, completely might be stretching the truth a bit.  They will let you pet them and are fairly docile - unless you have deer biscuits ("shika sembei").  Then they will try to eat you.  They will nudge, jostle, and even try to bite for their yummy nom noms.  Don't believe me?  See the video below. <-- (The video isn't working.  I don't know why.  I'm going to try to upload it to YouTube instead.  Sorry!)

After the treacherous walk through Nara's deer park, we entered Todaiji Temple, the premier tourist attraction in Nara.  The temple is not the original (like many temples in Japan) and is only two-thirds of the original size.  Even though it's considerably smaller than the original, Todaiji temple is still the largest wooden structure in the world.  It is 161 feet tall, 187 feet long, and 164 feet wide!  Inside the temple is its Daibutsu or Great Buddha, it is also Japan's largest bronze Buddha.  At a height of more than 50 feet, the Daibutsu is made of 437 tons of bronze, 286 pounds of pure gold, 165 pounds of mercury, and 7 tons of vegetable wax (Frommers.com).  Wow!

However, thanks to Japan's frequency of natural disasters, today's Buddha isn't quite what it used to be.  In 855, in what had to be a ginormous earthquake, the statue lost its head.  It was repaired, but alas, the huge wooden building was burned twice during wars, melting the Buddha's head. The present head dates from 1692.

Both Kirby and I really enjoyed Todaiji Temple.  The sheer size of it alone was enough to astonish even the most traveled tourist.  I wish we could say that we wandered around the rest of Nara's historical landmarks, reflecting on Japan's beautiful cultural heritage, but I just wanted to play with the deer.  Haha!

We ate takoyaki for lunch.  Literally "fried or grilled octopus".  It is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, ponzu, mayonnaise, green laver, and fish shavings.  We also watched a famous shop make green tea mochi.  The cooked rice is pounded with a wooden mallet in a traditional mortar.  Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi.  It looked considerably dangerous at the speed they were working.

Our Nara adventures only lasted an afternoon but were exceptionally satisfying.  Afterwords we quickly headed back to Kyoto before the sun set.

(We would have liked to stop by Fushimi Inari Shrine on our way back to Kyoto but unfortunately we didn't make it before it got dark)