Nara and Osaka

Day 7 Wednesday April 11th

After a good start in the morning we packed our bags and made our way yet again down to the train station. We threw our bags into a locker in Kyoto station and bought 2 tickets down to the city of Nara. Nara is most famous for been the first official permanent capital of Japan in the year 710. However it was then moved in 785 to what is now know as Kyoto. Kyoto remained the capital of Japan until 1868 where it was moved when emperor Meji moved to the city of Edo. The city then renamed Tokyo which means "eastern capital".


Upon walking around Nara you instantly notice all the deer roaming around. They are wondering around in the parks and follow you around hoping you buy some of the crackers for sale for 150 yen ($1.50 Canadian). Well yes Ryan and I did this and found out how aggressive they can be. One grabbed onto the back of my sweater and it was quite a struggle to get it back. Ryan was surrounded...well just take a look at the photo.

The reason that there are Sika deer around the city is that in the Shinto Religion they are regarded as messengers of the gods. Since Nara is filled with Buddhist temples is seems only right to have them roaming around.



We walked around the park checking out a few temples and pagodas before heading to our main destination which was Todaiji. Inside is the biggest statue of a Buddha that I have ever seen. It was cast back in 752 AD. Take a look at the size of the people compared to the building that houses this statue. It is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world! The Bronze Buddha was up to the ceiling and truly a site worth seeing. We spent a lot of time admiring the building and statue before walking around more parks and the rest of the city.



By night fall, we had to make our way back to Osaka where we had a great meal at the Hard Rock cafe. Yes don't worry I bought a shot glass to add to the collection. We walked the 45min or so back to train station in Osaka to connect to Kyoto where we were reunited with our bags. From here we waited until 11pm to catch the night bus back to Tokyo. The bus was magnificent. Each seat was a reclining seat with plenty of space between you and the next person. I had a giant area to myself and proceeded to look out the window until we were out in the country and it was getting to be 2:00am. It was one of the better sleeps I had had so far on the trip.

The remaining days of Japan to come...