Japan 2012 Kyoto Day 2

Kyoto Day 2 - Nara

The next day in Kyoto we woke up and had another instant udon (love the hotpot in the room!).

Nice hot pot

We got another all day bus pass, and took the bus to the Kyoto train station, which is pretty impressive looking.  It wasn't quite as crowded as Shinjuku, but still pretty crowded.  Mich said she lost me when I was only 5 feet away, cause everyone looks the same!  We used the JR pass to take the train to Nara (45min).

Nara!  I think.

When is this bus coming?!?
Oh, wrong bus stop!

Once we reached Nara, we got a nori onigiri with unagi on top.  It looked better than it tasted.  Then we got a map and info from the information desk, and went to the bus stop.

After we waited a bit, went back to the information booth to ask a few more questions and realized we were at the wrong side (buses weren't going to show up on that side)?

They suggested we walk, so we decided to break out the umbrellas and start walking it!  It was pretty cold tho.  On our way we stopped at a minimart for a snack.

Walking in the rain..

Some Nara temple?  Kokufuji?

Ring it!!

Lots of steps!

We reached the first shrine - I am not really sure what it was, but they had told us to visit it at the information center, so we did.  Mich rang the bell at the shrine really softly.  After we left, I grabbed another small coffee, then... we started to see the deer!!

DEER!!

Mich loves the animals and likes to feed them, so decided to buy a stack of deer sembei (did not taste it, apparently it is not tasty)..  Unfortunately, the deer are not afraid of people and are quite aggressive - they started head butting Mich in the butt!  She had to run away to avoid them, then ended up giving it away quickly!

Staring contest

Hey, you are a little close

Cornered!!

No more!!  Leave me alone!

Apparently feeding the deer is a bad idea.  It was fun to watch other people feed the deer though!  We watched and laughed knowingly as they yelped and ran away from the head butting deer.

deerfest

After the deer feeding debacle, we moved on towards the big temple, Todaiji.  Saw plenty of deer, all hanging around the food vendors.

Even more deer
waiting around the food vendrs

Wood statue -
Is that one piece of wood?

Todaiji - largest wooden structure in the world
(at least that's what the pamplet said)
used to be bigger before they rebuilt it

There were a lot of people even though it was raining.  There was a large gate at the entrance with these massive wooden statues inside.



Inside Todaiji is a huge buddha statue, largest bronze buddha in the world.  Apparently Nara used to be the capitol, but the church had too much influence so they moved the capitol to Heian-kyo.  In any case, pretty cool inside.

Big Bronze Buddha Statue

more statues

Mini-replica

So there is this support beam that has a hold in it, supposedly the size of the buddha's nostril, and if you fit thru it, you'll be enlightened in your next life.  We watched a bunch of kids go thru it, Mich thought it would be easy, I was a little worried.

Looks easy

Hey, I'm stuck!!

Ooof, made it my second try

Um, it's smalled than I thought

Yea! made it

So after starting to go thru, mich got stuck!  She had to back up, and go thru sideways.  It gets a lot narrower in the middle, but I was able to rotate sideways and get thru.  Here's a tip - put both your arms straight up like you are diving thru.  I wouldn't make it otherwise (I tried).

Enlightenment here I come (next life at least).


After that exercise, we bought a few omamori at the temple and made our way back to the Nara station.  On the way out, I got a yaki imo which was pretty good.  Had to dodge the deer tho...

Yaki Imo!

How come all the deer are looking
at me?  Oh crap, they want my food,
get away!

Made our way back to Nara station on the bus.
Went to Vie de France for an an donut snack.  Delicious!

an donut was awesome

Took the train back to Kyoto, and caught a bus to Kinkakuji.

It was a pretty long bus ride to kinkakujji, but it did drop us off right in front.  Lots of people were there, and we made our way around the gardens.

Dropped off in front of kinkakuji

Kinkaku ji - mich doesn't remember it.  It's Gold!

Kinkakuji in the rain

Maybe it's time to let this tree fall down

Coin toss

We left kinkakuji and made our way to Ryoanji - apparently, Michelle did not remember any of these places except Ryoanji!

Leaving Kinkakuji

Ryoanji - Zen Rock Garden

Ryoanji was Mich's favorite last time we came, and she still likes it.

Entrance to Ryoanji

Floor is cold

We got to Ryoanji a bit before closing.

We made our way to the temple - we took off our shoes and walked around.  Looked exactly as we remembered it.  Floor was pretty cold though, and was getting to be uncomfortable.  Then we noticed, most people were wearing slippers.  So we went back to the entrance and found a huge bin of slippers that we missed.  Much better after that.

It was pretty quiet and peaceful.

fountain

rock garden

hey over here

leaving ryoanji

We left ryoanji and took the bus back to the hotel.  Mich was pretty tired, so she took a nap and I went out to go find some food.

In front of our hotel - Starbucks!

Our Hotel Monterey

Walking around Shijo street

I went to the basement at Daimaru right before it was closing and picked up a bunch of food for dinner (tempura, korokke, bread, donut), plus bread for breakfast the next day.  Also on the way back, passed a little stand where they were making karaage, so picked up some of that as well, which was pretty good.

Then sleep!

Chicken karaage stand