Asia Mega Tour II - Nara

If Kyoto was the old capital of Japan prior to Tokyo, then Nara is the ancient capital whose prominence was in the 8th century and remained a spiritual center place in the country even after the capital was moved. It's about an hour train ride from Kyoto and there is a very cost effective bus pass you can use once you are there. Unfortunately for us the day turned out to be very cold and windy. It had been predicted that it would be warmer and rainy. As it was the temperature was in the mid-40's most of the day. Although there are 8 major temples, shrines and palaces in Nara, we only could get to three of them before we decided that it was just too cold and uncomfortable. So despite the slanderous statements emanating from certain quarters, we called our day short and went back to Kyoto. It was a good decision. And if you'd like another opinion on the same subject with a lot more attention to the detail of where we were, visit Wife's blog.

Deer

There is a story that I forget about why the deer is considered sacred in Nara. Since they are sacred, they pretty much have the run of the place and have now become a nuisance. Personally I'm thinking a venison specialty place would make a lot of sense.

Next we went to 

Where there is another big pagoda

Other buildings of importance

And stuff  under construction

Then we went on to the Todai-ji Temple.

Where we relived the joy we experienced in China of being with Chinese tourists. There was a ton of Chinese tour groups at the site.

This is the largest wooden building in the world

But what made this really great was the collection of giant Buddha and other statues where they were allowing us to take pictures.

Along with other Buddhist related art

We skipped on temple that was going to take a lot of walking in the cold and took the bus to an area that was supposed to be an old part of town with restaurants. No restaurants found but we did find a free museum that depicted what a merchant's home would have looked like during the Tokugawa era.

Finally we made our way back to the rail station and asked for some lunch ideas. We settled on a tiny place the specialized in chicken based ramen.

First we had to figure out this machine by which we placed our order for the one-woman shop that made the ramen.

The making of ramen

"What do you think de-I? Gonna be good?"

Ramen deliciousness

And we finish up with signs of the world

After much work with my Google translator ap, I'm convinced this is instruction for deer who desire to be part of Nara Buddhist experience.