Thursday, August 23, 2007

Nara - Japan's First Capital

We rose bright and early to catch an early train to get to Nara from Kyoto. Around the year 646, Japan decided that they needed a capital to govern the country. They tried out two previous areas before deciding that Nara was the best spot. Therefore, Nara became Japan's first real capital in the year 710. It was only the capital for 75 years before it was changed to Kyoto. It was during this brief stint of 75 years that Japan imported many Chinese customs and ways and began integrating these things into Japanese society, such as declaring Buddhism the National Religion. Since the capital was moved to Kyoto, many of the temples & shrines in Kyoto had been destroyed with attacks on Japan. However, with Nara on the back burner of these attacks, several of the shrines and temples were never destroyed and are in tact from the way they were originally developed. It is the number two tourist attraction in this part of Japan following Kyoto. In 1998, there were eight sights deemed worthy to be UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

As we exited out of Nara Station, I stopped and asked for a map of the area from an Information center. We were asked if we would be interested in having a free tour guide for the day. After having the day before be a bit ruined by my lack of understanding of the area, we decided it would probably be for the best to have one. We only had one day in Nara and we wanted to be able to see the sights hassle free. It also relieved a lot of the stress on my shoulders by not having to try to read the maps and figuring out where we were. Our hotel wouldn't allow us to check in until 3 or some late hour so we stored our luggage in lockers at the station for the day. A friendly stranger helped us lift our bags and carry our bags for us. We thought he worked at the locker area, but so it turns out, he didn't and was just a friendly stranger trying to help us.

Our tour guides' name was Yoriko and we met her at another Tourist Information Center. She was this absolutely adorable woman, about 60 years old who just wants to practice her English so she gives free tours. Immediately, I really liked her, she was so helpful and just so absolutely cute! The majority of the temples and shrines were in an area called Nara koen area or Nara Park. One trademark of Nara that is well-known throughout Japan is the large number of tame deer that walk around trying to get food from the tourists. There are about 1200 deer in this area that were considered sacred before Buddhism was introduced into Japan. At that time, they were considered messengers from God and thus have been declared as National Treasures for Japan.

We didn't really see many of these deer until Yoriko led us towards the various temples and shrines. She stopped us at a pond along the way to tell us of a Japanese folklore story about the pond. I already forget it now, a month and a half later but it was a love story for sure. From there, she took us to Kofuku-ji temple. This temple is quite interesting as it was transferred to Nara from Kyoto in 710. It originally had 175 buildings, but destruction has left only a dozen standing. There are two pagodas in this area, and I think the more impressive one dates back to 1426. It is actually the second tallest in Japan. Yoriko taught us that each layer of a pagoda represents the earth's elements. For example, one represents water, another level earth, and so on.


We walked to the next shrine called Kasuga Taisha which was founded in the 8th century. Approaching the entrance of the shrine, you begin seeing hundreds of lanterns lining the pathway. It was set in the woods, so it made it really feel "sacred" to me. According to shinto practice, the main shrine needs to be completely rebuilt every twenty years and the keepers of the shrine keep this up.

The next few places we visited were all part of a place called "Todai-ji". We first stopped at sangatsu do hall. It is the oldest building in the Todai-ji temple complex. It houses a small collection of statues from the Nara capital period. There were 16 statues inside and 12 are designated as National Treasures and the remaining 4 are considered to be Important Culture Properties. 14 were made between the twenty years of 729-749. Most of them are deities to the Buddhist beliefs. They all had very fierce looking faces and generally made of Gold and painted over. They were so old, that you could barely distinguish what color they were supposed to be painted. Others that weren't looking fierce had their hands put together and were in prayer. They were very impressive.


Afterwards, we moved onto the nigatsu do building. We needed to make a small climb uphill to view it, but it was well worth it for the views that we got from up top. The outer part of the building had all sorts of paintings around it. There were two people that were sitting inside practicing mantras, it was really cool to listen to. We rested here for a bit intaking the views.



The last place we went to, which is considered to be the most impressive building in all of the Todai-ji complex is called the Daibutsu-den hall. The building is the largest wooden structure in the entire world. The current building was built in 1709, and it's actually only 2/3 the size of the original building. The old, wooden building is actually home to an gigantic bronze Buddha


And, I mean gigantic! Th name of budda is Daibutsu which literally translates to Big Buddha. It is one of the largest Bronze figures in the world. It was originally cast in 746, however, the current Buddha had been recast. It stands over 16m high and consists of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130 kg of gold. It is believed by Historians, that this Buddha was cast to as a charm against smallpox within Japan. The reason it had been recast was because it had lost it's head a few times due to natural disasters such as earthquakes or fires. You can see a color difference between the head and it's body for sure.

I had seen another Daibutsu in Kamakura, that was impressive, but this guy in Nara, was definitely even more awe-inspiring. It is rumored that the Daibutsu in Nara can hold the Daibutsu in Kamakura in the palm of his hand! In addition, to this one large Bronze Buddha, there were other protectors that were just as impressively large that were alongside Daibutsu.



Towards the back of the Daibutsu den hall is a pole with a hole at the bottom of it. The hole is rumored to be exactly the same size as the Big Buddha's nostril. According to our tour guide Yoriko, there is a belief that if a person can fit through that hole, they will go to paradise. We first watched a group of Junior High School boys wiggling their way through the hole. Then, Julie went and was successful and then it was my turn. I was a bit nervous I wouldn't make it but, I did, with the help of some of those boys helping pull me through. It turns out, we are going to paradiese!! See you there?



The last part of this temple complex that Yoriko took us to see was to the gateway entrance to the temple. It turns out we must have gone through a back entrance or something. On the side of this gate, called nandai-mon, are two intimidating "nio guardians." These wooden figures were originally carved in the 13th century. It is claimed that they are some of the finest wooden structures in all Japan, if not the world. They have been recently restored. To me, the most impressive thing about these guardians were how tall they were.


At this point, we had seen all the temples and shrines in the Nara Koen park and it was nearly noon. The last spot that Yoriko took us to was a gorgeous Japanese style garden named yoshikien. There are three different styles of gardens here, a pond garden, a moss garden, and a tea ceremonial flower garden. There is a tea house in the moss garden that we were allowed to look at. Most of the gardens were carpeted with cedar moss, other parts had seasonal flowers and others had rock paths to follow. I am so in love with Japanese gardens.


Finally it was lunch time. Yoriko recognized my vegetarian eating habits and took me to one of my favorite food restaurants in Japan. Any restaurant that makes okonomiyaki is awesome in my eyes. Okonomiyaki is kind of like a pancake, with all sorts of things tossed inside such as vegetables, meat, mochi, anything really and then a sauce to put on top or mayonnaise, seaweed, all types of toppings as well. After lunch, we said goodbye to Yoriko and walked around the city a little more to do some shopping or whatnot. The city is rather small and we were really tired. We finally checked into our hotel, a hotel called the "Super Hotel" - sounds really ghetto but was actually a cute little room perfect for us. We had been staying in hostels up until this point so we were really happy to finally have a room to ourselves.

We took a short nap, watched some Full House in Japanese and then headed out to dinner at a cute little French cafe' to have a taste of Western style food again. We ended our night at a bar that was around the corner of our hotel. We definitely found some hole in the wall bar where we were the only foreigners and we had a blast that night. The bartender could speak some English, so Julie was able to talk with him a bit and then the rest of the night ended with us playing darts, Julie demanding which song be played next to the DJ, and then singing at the top of our lungs as the rest of the bar stared at us like we're nuts. We took some shots and then I woke up the next morning ... it felt like college again with Julie =) I love it.



Click here to see all the pics from this day...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I'd be going to Paradise, maybe just part of me!!!!! Aunt Chris Rochester NY

Todaiji Temple said...

Very nice post. Great Eastern Temple is also called Todaiji. You can find regional Buddhist temples, head-office of the Kegon school of Buddhism in Japan. Nara Daibutsu or the Great Buddha of Nara, the statue was instated in the Great Buddha Hall or Daibutsuden. YOu can see the gigantic temple complex of Todaji.Two magnificent pagodas towering 100metres high that were the highest buildings globally during that time. Statue of the Great Buddha is made of an amalgamation of copper and bronze.