Big Buddha

We braved the pandemic and spent the weekend in Nara, about an hour or so away by train from Kyoto. We've been there before, including a day trip a few weeks ago, but there's still much we haven't seen in the (older) old capital, so we thought it merited an overnight excursion. Also, last time we were there was before swine flu swept the nation, and so it was swamped with school trips and other tourists. We thought, correctly, that it might be a little quieter this time, what with all the sick people. We also thought it might make good practice for our upcoming Korea trip, too, if we stayed overnight somewhere. By now, little J probably doesn't remember sleeping anywhere other than our Kyoto apartment. More on the overnight part of the adventure coming soon.

Nara was capital of Japan for just 70-some years in the 8th century, but it, with the surrounding region, is thought to be the root of much of Japanese civilization as it's known today. We enjoyed all the posters in the train stations advertising Nara's 1300th birthday, coming next year. Today, Nara is a bustling tourist and commercial city, and the Nara plain contains both the world's oldest and the world's largest wooden buildings. It also contains Nara Koen--a large park that is home to thousands of small deer (the messengers of the kami) who, for a cookie (sold by venders on every corner), will politely bow to you (before they rip the cookie out of your fingers). Kawaii!

Nara's reign as capital was shortlived. Why did the capital move to Kyoto? You guessed it--warrior monks! The Todaiji monks became too politically powerful, and the imperials thought that building a new capital (and commissioning some Enryakuji warrior monks of their own--who of course turned on them later) would be easier than getting the Nara monks under control. The monks don't seem any wilder than the deer today.

Though we've been there before, we wanted J to see the big Buddha in Todaiji temple. This is the world's largest indoor statue in the world's largest wooden building. Both really are giant, and we took several pictures with little J as the scale model. The Daibutsuden (Great Buddha hall) burned down a couple of times, and the current building was reconstructed in 1709. Amazingly, the original was half again as big.

This giant guy guards the temple from evil spirits (tell it to the hand!).

The Great Buddha Hall. Look at the tiny people!

Such a big Buddha needs a big house.

On our second day, we hiked up behind the Daibutsuden to Nigatsudo (February temple). I kept thinking things like "super-cool" and "totally awesome" about this temple, though I'd never say such things on this blog. It had old walls, giant lanterns, lots of incense in the air, carved stones in the surrounding woods, chanting monks, an expansive view of the Nara plain, and a main hall on stilts on the mountainside. It also had a little noodle shop with delicious kitsune donburi (tofu/egg rice) and sansai udon (mountain vegetable noodle soup).

(Not where I'd stand in case of earthquake...)

Finally we ended our Nara adventure at Horyuji, which contains the world's oldest wooden buildings. We'd seen the treasures of this temple previously at a special exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum, and we only had time to see the grounds this time. Some buildings are from the Asuka period (just before Nara)--over 1300 years old!

Little Jaybird learned to wave at people this weekend. We don't know how this happened--it's not something we tried to teach him or anything. We just noticed that he seemed to be waving back to people when they waved at him. Once we started encouraging this behavior, he became a waving fool--greeting each of the hundreds of tourists we saw.