Visting Nara, and Tōdai-ji
The day had gotten late, but we decided on a gamble that we could make it to Nara in time to visit the temple. We dashed out of the Nara metro station and into a waiting cab who drove the ancient city’s backroads like he was on fire.
We made it with 52 minutes of Buddha appreciation time left.
It was incredible!
The largest bronze buddha was housed in one of the world’s largest wood structures. I thought it would be big, but it was mind boggling big.
The Japanese fieldtrip school groups were swarming all over the place. The atmosphere that the chattering kids generated made the place even more magical.
We walked into the enormous structure and were struck by a very peacefully confrontational Buddha.
The energy in the very old well-used temple was powerful. It punched right into me.
When we visit Hawaii we always visit the Byodo-in temple and watch how visitors deal with the confrontational space. This temple had the same affect on people.
We sat and watched. We walked around and around the enormous space absorbing more and more details.
The bells rang and the doors started to close – We felt light and charged full of energy as we left. Once we got outside into the grounds we realized that we were surrounded by deer. A lot of deer! All incredibly tame and looking for an offering of special deer food wafers that the park sold.
We watched a lot of deer bite people’s butts as their backs were turned, looking for the wafers in a back pocket. Amazing and bizarre.
We stayed later than we anticipated – enjoying walking the grounds. As it started to get dark and we both were hit by a delayed wave of jet lag we realized that all the public transportation and taxis had disappeared.
We started walking the deserted beautiful narrow streets. And we waked and walked. Just as our collective wills to live were about to leave us we stumbled into a Japanese Octoberfest…in May.
The beer was authentic and they had some sausage-like items but that was the extent of the traditional German-like items. The rest of the menu was pretty creative.
We paused and rejuvenated in the festival energy and then found a pile of taxis awaiting the wave of drunk Octoberfest revelers.
The taxi dumped us in front of the train station and we were shortly on our way back to Kobe.
Tips for visiting Nara:
The Tōdai-ji grounds and temples is a 1-3 hour exploration.
The Nara train station is easy and fast access to the area. A short cab ride to the Tōdai-ji temple site is also easy.
The Temple grounds are large. If your cab driver drops you at the ‘entrance’ you will be a 10 min walk to the temple. There are many, many amazing sites, buildings, and beautiful grounds to see as you walk.
The Sika deer were an interesting surprise. They are everywhere! They are believed to be messengers of the gods, and therefore sacred. There are waffer/feed stations here and there through the site and can be purchased to feed the deer. This activity was a big hit with our party.
The Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden Hall) houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana. AMAZING!!
The Great Buddha Hall is one of the worlds oldest wooden buildings - while this sounds like an interesting architectural detail to enhance your understanding of the place, the fact of the matter is stunning when you see it. Every detail of the building is an example of mind boggling craftsmanship.
The visitors to the temple grounds include a lot of locals. This is an active worship an educational site important to the Japanese people. Gawk to your hearts content, but keep in mind you are in someone else’s church. Keep it cool.
Take your time (unlike us), and let the place soak in. The visitors, the temples, the deer, the history is all deep territory. Enjoy!
