Life.

Near the end of June, we travelled to Nara for a two day, one night stay. It took a couple of hours by bus to get there from Nagoya.

We arrived there sometime in the early afternoon and after dropping our overnight bag off at the hotel, we headed out to our first stop, Hōryū-ji (法隆寺). This temple is on the world heritage list, and apparently the pagoda is one of the oldest wooden structures still standing. The tree that’s in the photos below just looked awesome. I wonder if it was hit by lightning or if it’s that way because of wear and old age.

After walking the grounds, we took a walk around the area where we found a man-made lake and a little shrine. We also walked to what looks like a grassy hill, but is actually a grave. There’s a door on the side, but we couldn’t get in, which quite honestly, I was okay with.

The next day we had a lot that we wanted to see, so we rented bicycles to make getting around the city faster. It was also ridiculously hot and humid, so being able to spend half the amount of time under the blazing sun was also a blessing. Let’s forget that fact that I hadn’t ridden a bicycle in years and it was actually somewhat terrifying going through any area that was remotely narrow. But hey, I didn’t crash, run into anything, hit anyone or fall off, so I’d call that successful.

The following are just a few photos from around the park, and proof that I was indeed on a bicycle, since it seems that no one that actually knows me believes that it’s true. There’s no photo, but we did stop at a little place (I can’t find a better fitting word) to have some ice cream and cool down. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out from the heat. I jokingly blame it on being Canadian. We’re not equipped for Japan’s humid weather.

We made one stop before reaching Kasuga-taisha (春日大社), but since I can’t remember where it was, we’re moving on, haha. The Kasuga-taisha, which is another world heritage spot, is pretty awesome, and is lined with bronze and stone lanterns. The atmosphere there is so serene and feeling at peace seems to come so naturally. Nara is famous for it’s wild (but mostly tame) deer that roam around, and there were a few in this area, including a stone deer fountain.

And since we’re on the the subject of deer, we took way too many photos of them, but I narrowed it down to a few cute ones. I personally love the one where it looks like the deer is smiling and the sign is just awesome. You can buy senbei to feed the deer, and they’re greedy little things! We bought some at Todaiji, and didn’t finish giving them all out (since those deer get fed like crazy), so we headed to the park to give the rest away.

We found a place with a lot of deer chilling under the trees, so we stopped and my boyfriend ran into the washroom. I waited patiently, trying to get the rest of the paper off of the snack, but I guess the deer that were nearby could smell the senbei and sauntered over. Since I wasn’t giving it up, the one deer decided to eat my map. Awesome. He was so aggressive, that I didn’t know what to do… so I gave him a nice little smack. Unfortunately, that didn’t deter him. I tried to run away a bit, but they only chased me, nipping at my clothes which were then covered with deer drool. Gross. So, I caved and started feeding them.

The last stop on our Nara adventure, was to another world heritage and very famous spot, Tōdai-ji (東大寺). This temple has the largest bronze statue of Buddha, which is housed in the largest wooden building in the world. Needless to say, it’s pretty huge. There were a lot of school trips going on, so it was packed with students. Three girls stopped to ask if we could take a photo together, so we did.

At the top of one of the buildings (the one with all the stairs) they had a nice little area where you can relax and drink (free) tea. All you had to do is wash your cup afterwards. Although it was a blistering hot day, up top it picked up a beautiful breeze, so it was a great place to take a short break and refresh.

Our two day trip to Nara was awesome (despite the heat) and we came home feeling refreshed and exhausted. Something about visiting shrines and temples has that calming effect. For anyone visiting Japan and anyone especially interested in history or world heritage spots, Nara is a great place to stop. If you’re a big deer fan, it’s a place you definitely can’t miss!

And since we’re at the end, I feel it’s only fair to say that I didn’t take most of these photos.

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