The gate to Todai-ji
While we were in Kyoto and Nara, the biggest challenge was to keep our five-year-old son entertained. Most attractions in these old capital cities are shrines and temples, and that's what we (my husband and I, the grown-ups) wanted to see. But, obviously, these historical sites are not so exciting for a little guy. I mean, how many old temples can a five-year-old see without fussing? My son's impression on Nijo Castle was "Dark, stinky, and spooky!", and that on the rock garden at Ryoan-ji was "a big sand box you cannot play in!" How can we blame him? These are all so true from a little guy's point of view. So up to this point, the highlights of his trip had been riding trains and buses.
Today, however, we went to a place he was looking forward to visiting for the entire trip! It is the
Nara Park, the home of twelve hundred deer.
They love you if you've got crackers.
They are roaming all over the park and are designated as a national protected species
(i.e. you must be nice to them...). You can buy "deer crackers" from street vendors and feed them to the deer. Some deer seem to hang around the vendors so that they can go after the tourists who just purchased the crackers. My son held out some crackers to a deer, and, before you know it, he was surrounded by a dozen of very eager Bambis. They are quite aggressive and try to take crackers out of your hand. Scared, he handed all the crackers to his dad, and now all the deer would swarm over my husband! Once you are out of crackers, they would promptly leave you to look for other generous visitors. They have no interest in human-beings without crackers.
So in between these deer-feeding sessions, we visited other attractions within the Nara Park.
Got crackers?
The first was
Todai-ji, which is known for
Daibutsu, the Great Buddha. The building housing the stature is the world's largest wooden building (57m tall, 57.5m wide!). And the Buddha stature inside is 15-meter tall. According to the tour guide who was shouting these facts at the school kids, the first stature was built in 752, but was rebuilt or repaired several times due to fires; the current one is completed in 1692 (newer in comparison, isn't it?). We walked around this huge Buddha and wondered how people could make such a big thing in old days without cranes and heavy machineries...
Paying a visit to more deer here and there, we walked on to
Kasuga Taisha, a shrine located in the east end of the Nara Park.
Todaiji Daibutsu Den
Probably because it was getting late in the afternoon, not many tourists were around, and we almost had the whole shrine to ourselves. What I like about this shrine is the beautiful hanging lanterns near the main building. I imagined what it was like when they are all lit... We took time to walk around the shrine and finally walked back to the bus stop. It was a warm day, so we were quite exhausted. We didn't feel like sitting around a restaurant, so we bought some Bento boxes and rice balls for dinner and ate them at hotel.
Our hotel had a couple of private ofuro (bathtubs) for guests to use (500 yen for 40 min.). At traditional Japanese inns, they often have big communal bathes. They can be so spacious and wonderful, but if you don't want to share the bath with strangers, or if you are not comfortable being naked in front of them, they may not be all that good.
Daibutsu (Great Buddha); He is 15 meter-tall!
These private ofuro, however, are great because they are much bigger than those bathrooms in guest rooms, and the best of all, you can enjoy it all by yourself (or just with your family)! It seems to be more and more facilities have this kind of services. So we used this private bath tonight. The bathtub was made with cedar so that the whole bathroom smelled wonderfully. The tub was big enough for my son to swim around, and deep enough for the water to reach your chin when you sat in it. Ahhhhhhhhh. That was 500 yen well spent! :)
