Nara

This weekend my host family and I drove down to Nara City, to have a look at some old temples, buddhas, and deer.


We arrived in Nara at about 4pm on Saturday after driving all day (more like 4 hours). When we arrived we checked into Nara Hotel, a very famous hotel in the city. We had a some time to go sightseeing before it got dark, so we headed to Nara Park, where the deer live. After realising that the stalls selling deer food were closed, we decided to come back the next day. We headed to check out the five story pagoda and Kofukiji Temple.
The next day we walked through Nara Park to try to feed some deer. My host dad bought some crackers in a very highly populated area, and as soon as I was holding the crackers, I was swarmed by deer. It was quite scary, because some of these deer were a bit aggressive. I got bit a few times, which sucked. Unfortunately my host dad got attacked too, and didn´t manage to take any pictures of me while surrounded by deer. I wasn´t too keen on trying again. We started walking towards Great Buddhah Temple (Todaiji), our first attraction of the day.

Nara Hotel lantern with a deer on it. I felt compelled to take pictures of everything with deer on them this trip.

A view of the five story pagoda across the lake.

Entrance to the park

The deer have the whole crossing the road thing sorted.

Bambi flashbacks

These deer were pretty chill. The fur reminded me of my dog back home.

Its tongue even felt like my dog´s. 

This pagoda is two stories taller than the one in Takayama, I almost broke my neck trying to take a picture of it.

A temple. We went back to the hotel before I could find out what it was.

The deer lanterns looked even cooler in the dark. We had a fancy french dinner before retiring early.

Nara Hotel entrance. The photos I took really didn´t do this place justice.

Sento-kun, Nara City´s mascot. He´s basically a buddha with antlers, two things that are pretty characteristic about Nara
I´ve learned. 

Some of the more peaceful deer we met on our way.

A gate leading up to the gate to Todaiji temple

The gate to Todaiji temple

This is surprisingly the only photo that I got of me and my host parents. They´re kinda shy when it comes to pictures

Todaiji temple. It was the tallest wooden building in the world for a while. It was massive.

One of the Buddhas next to the main Buddha

A ferocious looking statue. Wouldn't want this guy to come to life.

A model of some of the other landmarks of Nara.

Another intimidating statue dude. I failed to ask what these were.

This is the great Buddha. Look at how small the people are standing next to it. It was pretty awe-inspiring.

A warning about the deer. I wish I had read this earlier.

This deer was pretty easygoing, I´m glad I got at least one decent picture of myself and one of these beauties.

On our way to the next temple we walked on this path surrounded by forest. Look at those roots!

Another orange gate.

I spotted a tiny deer, I´m guessing it was a baby. I don´t think I've ever seen anything so precious.

Another temple, a fire festival is held here every february.

I´m guessing these are lanterns.

The view was pretty awesome if I might say so myself.

On our way back we had to stop to rest our feet and quench our thirst. The temple grounds were so large, covering everything by foot was quite tiring. I love these Japanese sweets.

After having a proper lunch, we headed out to another temple. It was pretty empty. I wasn´t allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately.

At least I could take pictures in front of it.

Another pagoda, the one facing it was under renovation so I couldn't take a picture of it, let alone see it.

Addicted to this stuff.

We headed to another area with temples, but they looked very similar to the one we just visited, and I could´t take any pictures inside here either. Here is a stone confirming the splace´s status as a UNESCO´s World Heritage site.

A smaller shrine, with some orange gates kinda reminding me of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto.

The trip was so much fun! I feel like we got to see so little of what Nara has to offer, but we had a pretty tight schedule. It was so beautiful there, I wanted to take pictures of everything. Also, any city with wild deer roaming the streets is my kind of city. I definitely need to read up on some of Nara´s history, so I can understand the things that I saw a bit better.