Japan Day 9

Nara is amazing and the best place I’ve ever visited.

*roll credits*

No, but really. Temples, deer, more temples, even more deer, giant Buddha statues… what more could I possible ask for?

We did a walking tour today through what was the ancient capital city of Japan, led by our amazing tour guide, Yusuke. It was a 5-hour long journey that started from the Kintetsu Nara train station and took us through a series of parks and temples.

Our first stop was Kofuku-ji, a Buddhist temple with a series of pagodas surrounding it. The largest, 5-layered pagoda is under renovation at the moment and it’s completely surrounded by a weatherproof structure that looked uncannily like a grain elevator you’d find in the Canadian prairies. Weird.

Passing the grain elevator, we made our first deer sighting. This was very exciting, as I wasn’t sure exactly how many deer we’d see today… maybe like, I dunno, 10 in total? Oh boy was I in for a surprise. We then entered Noborioji Park and found, “the herd”.

Pandemonium. Antlers. People unfamiliar with animals, screaming with nervous laughter. And it was amazing.

We’d been warned to look out for the guys with the antlers as they could be “aggressive”, but I quickly found that the little ones were the most insistent about getting their snacks. Around the boundaries of the parks (and in stores along pathways later on) volunteers were selling packs of “deer cookies” for a few hundred yen and the deer knew where they were. As soon as someone had a pack of cookies in their hand, they had to move quickly or else they’d be swarmed by 3 or 4 deer looking for an easy treat… the trick was, they (the deer) knew the real way to earn their snack was to bow to you. Most honourable deer!

It was crazy to watch. This elegant looking beast, lowering its head in a quick bowing motion, then looking up at you with big, expectant, brown eyes in anticipation of its reward. You’d bow back, and break them off a piece of cookie and then the exchange would occur again and again.

And did I mention how many deer there were? There had to have been at least a thousand across the 5 hour tour and as many temples. Big deer, little deer, baby deer; some with no antlers, some with giant antlers, some missing antlers. It was amazing.

Okay so anyways, temples. We crossed the park and passed by the Nara National Museum and continued along to the Himuro Shrine, our first Shinto shrine of the tour. Yusuke elaborated on the origins of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan and how the flow of culture along the Silk Road and Japan’s isolation as an island nation helped shape the totality of their culture. It was very interesting to learn about the similarities and differences between the two main religions - the method of prayer for example is actually quite similar (bowing, use of hands) but the reasoning for each step of the action differs greatly, along with purification for body and soul.

After Himuro we marched toward Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple originally constructed in the 700s AD. The massive gate structure was deeply impressive, one of the largest in Japan, but what was truly awesome was the scale of the temple itself. Upon entering the grounds I absolutely let out an involuntary Owen Wilson-style “wow”. The temple is enormous and it was easy to appreciate the size because we got to actually go inside! There were three gigantic copper statues of Buddha, with the main one being surrounded by copper lotus leaves easily 7 feet tall. I swear I can still smell the incense burning as I type this out. Apparently, this temple is actually the second one at this location - the first one, destroyed by fire, was even larger than the one that took its place.

After we left Todai-ji it was time for lunch at a local restaurant called Kotoya. We had a set menu for us with a sampling of hot pot and several other Japanese cuisines. I didn’t know exactly what everything was other than it being utterly delicious, especially the little matcha cake for dessert. On leaving the restaurant, I realized they sold deer cookies there and since there was currently a deer waiting ever so politely at the open door I figured I would make a donation and make some new friends outside.

After another epic feeding frenzy with our deer dear new friends we continued up the road to grab another aisu coffee before continuing to our next stop at Kasugataisha Shrine. This Shinto shrine has stood for over 1300 years, and has a tree growing through one of the buildings to show for it! Surrounded by lanterns made of stone or copper or gold, each one represents someone’s wishes or hopes or dreams with a dedication make to the god of the temple (Shintoism has a different god for each temple, totalling over 8 million!). The lanterns are lit at night so that those prayers may be seen.

Our tour stops were now complete, so it was time to head back to the train station. We opted to walk back in hopes of feeding a few more deer, but alas all the cookies were gone… but it was naptime for most of the deer anyway so it probably worked out. Eating cookies and getting pets is hard work after all! We parted ways with Yusuke and thanked him tremendously for his hard work and organization that made our trip so memorable and informative. Arrigato gozaimas Yusuke!

On the train home, talk of an Owl Cafe came up and Steve, Carol, and I decided we’d check it out since it wasn’t too far of a run if we switched trains. Turns out it was less of a cafe and more of a quiet meet and greet type setup but the birds were all very respected and given their space. It was a fairly quick detour all told and I got to pet some owls (!) and found a cute souvenir to bring home.

Dinner was beef udon from 7-Eleven. That’s right: 7-Eleven the convenience store. Yes, they warmed it up for me. And yes, it was more amazing than it had any right to be for the ¥550 I paid for it.