Why do people enjoy visiting temples and shrines? Is it just the beautiful architecture? Perhaps they’re curious about the religion… Perhaps not…Regardless, when you’re in Japan, you should visit some temples and shrines, even if it is just for their physical beauty and mystique.
I woke up early this morning (about 9:30 
) and promptly left for my day trip to (cue drum roll…) Nara! Nara is just an hour train ride on the JR line from Kyoto, so it was possible to leave and arrive early this afternoon, see enough to feel “productive” and then leave in early evening to arrive in Kyoto at early evening (should one focus on being “productive” on a trip, having a lot of different experiences, or should one focus on quality of each individual experience to maximize the richness of each experience? What does my audience have to say?) Nara is famous for many things, but from a tourist’s eye, it is the number of temples and the sheer physical beauty of the park in which the majority of the temples reside… and did I not mention deer?
There are thousands of deer spread out through Nara Park. They exist and roam as freely as the people who visit the park do. It’s incredibly beautiful on many levels for, after visiting your first temple in Nara, you start creating this image of Nara as a city that exists harmoniously with nature, just as any Buddhist or naturalist would have it. With the addition of the polite people roaming and interacting with one another, you can’t help but allow yourself to fall into this imperturbable bliss. Also, I can’t stress how lucky I am to be here during autumn. I was never in a rush to get to the next temple, because the fall foliage was as attractive as a Geisha in the Gion district.
So after enjoying viewing the deer, i enjoyed viewing the deer some more…then after that… Todaiji!
The great temple of Todaiji (pronounced toh-die-gee) was the first on my list of “If I don’t see these, my asian art professor will likely go back and change my grade to an ‘f’ ” places… But also because I really wanted to see it. I don’t know the dimensions of the building, but it is considered the largest wooden building in the world. When you look at it, you don’t doubt that fact.
One great thing about Japan is that you can take photos without (besides being non-japanese) looking like a tourist. Japanese carry cameras with them all the time and are constantly taking photos of their own home country. I don’t know what draws them to it so much, but they are very traditional in many regards, and taking photos allows them to recall their cherished past. I’ve talked countless times about the polite nature of the Japanese (we’ll talk about “second skin” later,) however photo-taking is so commonplace that they’ll come up to you without saying anything, quickly hand you their camera, and say “Photo please??” It’s pretty humorous, and they’re very appreciative. Todaiji was no different.
I must rest for now, as I depart back to Tokyo tomorrow, but I shall update again tomorrow. I hope everyone is well.
-d
“…the fall foliage was as attractive as a Geisha in the Gion district.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA
i love it
Hey Dan.
Seems like you are having a great time. Enjoying the food?
Great stuff!
It’s interesting that you point out similarities between urban and rural culture in Japan, because, as you say, we make so much of the differences here. As I’m reading things and observing things about the past and present of Chicago I’m definitely interested to hear a little more about contrasts in the development of Japanese cities. So I’m going to totally interrogate you about it when you get back ;-P.