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Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
| Time | Event |
| 2:08p | Photos Again Here are some pictures from my trip to Nara. In Nara, there are deer EVERYWHERE. They just walk around the city. They are protected by the government. It's a crime to hunt them or anything like that (Although there wouldn't be much sport in hunting them anyway, as they'll walk right up to you .) Anyway, you can feed the deer if you want, and there are a lot of little stands selling deer food. When the deer know you have food, they get very aggressive. They come up and bump you with their heads, which can be a little dangerous if they haven't had their antlers cut in a while. Very insistant; they're just like, "I know you have food. Give it to me NOW!." Anyway, here's a photo of me feeding the deer. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Here I am with another deer. As you can see, they aren't scared at all. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  I saw an interesting window display in Nara and decided to pose in front of it. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  There were also some rather obscene items for sale in a couple of the stores. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  The main thing we went to Nara to see was Todaiji Temple. It was originally built around 1100 years ago, if I remember. It was destroyed and rebuilt on at least one occation, and there have of course been renovations. Anyway, it was massive public works project, mostly at the behest of the Emperor Shomu. The project was a way of uniting the people of the empire. People from all areas were called upon to contribute in whatever way they could. Todaiji is a Buddhist temple. It was around the time of Emperor Shomu that Buddhism started to take firm root in Japan outside of the aristocracy (Buddhism had been in Japan for about 100 years already, but the only people that really followed it or even KNEW about it were the aristocracy.) Buddhism was used as a tool for uniting the Japanese people together as a single people and country. At many periods in Japanese history, the land was fragmented into numerous small fiefdoms, constantly vying for power and land. With Shomu, Japan was united (for a period at least.) Anyway, here's a pic of of the first gate you have to pass through to get into Todaiji. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's amazing. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Inside the gates, there are two large statues, which serve as guardians to the temple. Together, they are called "Aum." One is "Ahhh" the other is "Mmm." The sound "Aum" is considered a powerful, sacred sound. By saying this sound, the guardians ward off any polluttion that might defile the temple's sacredness. Anyway, here I am in front of "Ahh." (You can tell which one is which by their mouths. "Ahh" has an open mouth, and "Mmm" has a closed mouth.) with Melanie, Ikuno's French exchange student. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Here I am in front of another gate at Todaiji http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Here I am in front of the actual temple. Beautiful, isn't it? http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Here's the main attraction on the temple, the Daibutsu (literally, "Big Buddha"). This thing is huge, and it might be tough to realize the size from the pictures. To give you perspective, the statue's nostrils are big enough for a small child to crawl through. This is Vairochana, one of the Buddhas. You'd have to see it for yourself. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  Here I am in front of a sculpted lotus pedal at the base of the Daibutsu http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  After Todaiji, we went to this other place, but I don't remember what it's called. Here I am in front of a cool building there. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg240/M  That does it for the Nara trip. I'll put up the pictures from my Kyoto trip soon. |
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