March Adventure Day 2: March 6th, 2013 – Nara and Fushimi Inari

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kyoto, Nara and Osaka – Decemeber 29th/30th/31st, 2012

After a long drive from Nagano we made it into Kyoto. Kyoto is my favourite city in all of Japan; I fell in love with it during my previous trip to Japan. This time however we didn’t get to see as much of the city or the surrounding castles or other historical sites. This was because we got into the city later in the evening and the next day we were leaving to visit Nara.

Our evening in Kyoto was nice. We were very close to the famous Gion district where you may be lucky enough to spot a geisha, so we took a nice walk in the area and had a delicious dinner. We then walked on to the main shrine of the area. The Yasaka Shrine sits at the end of Gion and the busy street leading up to it was built up to accommodate the many visitors to the shrine. Inside the shrine grounds there is a centre building that is surrounded by three levels of paper lanterns. After our evening walk we headed back to the hotel.

Green Tea Mousse

The next day we woke to rainy weather, which continued all the way to Osaka. Before leaving Kyoto we went back to Gion to do a bit more shopping. After finishing with the shopping we got into the car and headed an hour south for the city of Nara.

On my trip to Japan 3 years ago the best day that I had was the day trip out to Nara with my friend Alex. It had been something that I had wanted to see after learning about Japanese Buddhism in school. Nara was once a capital of Japan and a major centre of Buddhism. So on this trip we made another stop there.

The city is famous for the deer park in which shrines and one of the world’s most famous buildings. The central thing to visit at the park is Todaiji Temple. This temple is the world’s largest wooden structure and within the structures is a giant seated Buddha statue. This statue is larger than the one in Kamakura and unlike Kamakura you cannot enter the body – they do though have a pillar with a hole carved in it with the exact size of the statues nostril. Seeing this Buddha was just as awe inspiring as it was the first time and I was happy that I made another trip here. The one thing that I hope is on my next visit it won’t be raining.

From Nara we made tracks to Osaka. Osaka has quickly become a favourite place of mine in Japan (the train station at Umeda is my favourite place to be). We got into Osaka later in the evening and checked into what has been the nicest hotel during our trip. If you ever get to Osaka I recommend staying at the Hotel Monterey Osaka-Umeda. Being in the Umeda area we went into the Osaka Station City and had dinner at one of the department stores there. I wish that we had had more time in Osaka, but seeing as I will be here for at least 6 more months I know I will be going back to explore more of the city.

Check back for the next update when we see a little bit of Hiroshima and maybe some New Year’s Eve Festivities.