After having travelled Vietnam, Thailand
and a stop in Hong Kong, Mom and Donna were a little tired when they arrived in
Japan. That was why for our first adventure we decided to have a late start and
do something fairly close to Osaka and I told them that Nara and Inari would be
a more relaxing day than going to Hiroshima or Kyoto for the day.
We caught the train and made our way to
Nara.
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| A deer taking a break in the shade |
I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post
that Nara is my favourite place in Japan. So I was very excited to share this
place with Mom and Donna. On my last visit with Dad it was pouring rain so we
didn't do much exploring of the park grounds, this time just like the first one
3 years ago we had brilliant sunny weather.
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| 5-Storied Pagoda |
Getting off from the train we headed in the
direction of the park and Todaiji. The first stop was Kofuku-ji and taking a
look at the Five-Storied Pagoda. This was something that I hadn’t seen at the
park, so I quite enjoyed walking around there. It was also the first spotting
deer of the day.
From there we walked through the park and
made our to Todaiji. One of the things that Mom and Donna noticed were all the
peace signs that people were doing in the photos so on our way to the main building
they stopped and took a Japanese style photo.
With the bright sun seeing the main
building was again awe-inspiring. The largest wooden building against the blue
of the sky reminded me of my first visit and I was immediately reminded why
Nara was my favourite place. It was once again great to be standing in from of
the Daibutsu, I don't think I will ever get over the awe of being so small in
comparison to the size of the statue.
After spending time at the temple we made
our way back to the train station. We took a quick stop in a rest house because
I saw a statue of the mascot of Nara – which is a Buddha with deer antlers –
and I wanted a photo. [I personally think it looks like a creepy Buddha baby
with horns, but whatever.]
At the rest house they had a earthquake
simulator so I decided to have a go. They simulate three earthquakes, one I
can’t remember, the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and the one from 2011 the
Tohoku Earthquake (the machine though doesn’t have a full impact simulation of
this quake only about ¼ of it because the scale of it was too high). After
experiencing the 3 quakes they then simulate what the quake feels like with
rollers designed to be under buildings to stop the rough shaking. It does make
quite a difference.
From Nara I wanted to show my Mom and Donna
the tunnels of Torii at Fushimi Inari Shrine.
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| Guarding the entrance to the Shrine. |
This was another place that I had
visited 3 years ago and I thought it quite beautiful. The vibrancy of the
vermillion torii against the blue sky is something that I now associate with
Japan. It’s also an amazing sight to see these bright gates standing in amongst
the greenery of the forest that they are found in. The sight can also be seen
in the film Memoirs of Geisha.
After what turned out to be not that
relaxing of a day we headed back to Osaka. Where we had a delicious sushi
dinner – the first of our Japanese meals. Over all it was a great day and a
great week of sunshine and seeing Japan.
Up Next: Day 3 – Hiroshima and Miyajima.
Pictures up on Facebook and my Tumblr.
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