Tales from the Past: Nara

Today's tale is a tale from long ago. More than a month, anyway. My speaking partner invited me to go to Nara, which was the capitol of Japan from 710 to 784. It's a smaller city, but one with a good deal of history (and a good many UNESCO sites). We bought a one-day kind of card, which worked on all the trains and buses. It's still floating around my room somewhere. The train took about an hour. We ate at an Italian chain once we got there. It's been a while, so I'm a little sketchy on some of the details. Here are some pictures! No captions because I'm uploading them straight from the web. You see, the reason I never wrote this post is because I had forgotten my camera, and didn't have any pictures to put up with it. But recently my speaking partner sent me the ones she took.

Here's me feeding some deer! They're kind of scruffy looking but I think it's just the time of year. They run wild in Nara park, which is near Todaiji, the big temple we were visiting. They know exactly how many there are - I've forgotten the number but it's very specific. Anyway, you can feed them little wafers you can buy from vendors. Once you have them, they know you have them, and they swarm you. They nibbled some of my clothes and ripped my friend's (the floridian, for those who have been reading) jacket. It's a little scary, but also very fun. They just take it right from your hand. Sometimes they jump up and hoof you, though. I'm wearing my headphones in the picture, and one of them snagged them with its hoof, and I had to untangle it. When you don't have any food they're unintersted in you, and you can just go up and pet them. They're not really into it, though, as you can tell in the second picture.

Here's me looking dorky outside Todaiji. Seriously dorky. But Todaiji was cool. It's the world's largest wooden building, and it used to be bigger. It also houses an alarmingly large Buddha. There's a pillar in the back of the temple with a hole in it, large enough to fit through if you're relatively thin (I didn't try, they were kids in it at the time) and if you can fit supposedly you will find enlightenment in the next life. But, this hole, which is large enough to fit through, is the size of one of the nostrils on the Buddha in Todaiji. So: a large Buddha. Pictures of the nostril pillar, and the Buddha, at the Wikipedia.

We also went to another temple, notable for having the world's oldest standing wooden building. Also, it was incredibly cold, and the floridian took us on a quest to find ninja shoes he could purchase, which have the big toe in a separate little shoe of its own. I want to go to Nara again when it gets a little warmer.