Oh deer, that's a big temple!
July 30, 2018
Possibly the most beautiful manhole cover.
We decided to take a day trip to Nara. This area is famous for having more beautiful temples as well as it’s deer population. In our walk from the train to our first temple, we walked through a shopping street and were met with tons of deer souvenir shops. There was everything from food with deer stamped on it to stuffed animals, hats, and anything else you can imagine with deer images. Even the street manhole covers were beautifully decorated with images of Nara and of course deer!
We arrived at Kofoku-ji Temple to find it undergoing some major renovations. From afar it looked like a very large and pretty building. There is also a five-story pagoda. After first being built in 669, the temple was dismantled and moved to this location in 710.
They're still wild animals
As we walked through Nara Park to the next temple, we were met with the sight of tons of deer and people feeding them. We researched later to find out that the deer population has actually gotten a bit out of control with over 1,200 deer living here. They are a national treasure and protected by law, but last year they began trying to control the population again. We read an article that explained that they aren't killing any dear that stay within the park, but the dear don't exactly know where the park's boundaries are...They were incredibly calm (mostly), letting people pet them and taking food from anyone who would feed them. It was also funny to watch them go after food in people’s hands who weren’t feeding them quickly enough. They would get a bit aggressive, even nipping at people’s shirts, when they would hold onto food without feeding them or even try to taunt them with it, so we tried to keep our distance.
Toda-ji Temple. Very impressive, especially being made of wood. The people look tiny!
After making our way safely past the deer, we made it to Toda-ji Temple. This one dates before 800 and is massive. As with many of the other temples, it has burnt down and been damaged by natural disasters several times, and the current building is actually about a third smaller than the original temples. However, it is still one of the largest wooden structures in the world. Inside is a massive Buddha surrounded by gold lotus petals with images representing the values of Buddhism. It has been really interesting to see how the Buddha’s in each country we have visited are so different from one another.
