Nara - first day trip outside of Kyoto

I only have 5 more days to explore before heading back on Saturday so trying to take advantage of every moment. Today, Berenice and I headed to Nara, which is about 50 minutes south of Kyoto.

In the 700's, (yup, that's 7...0...0) Nara was the capital of Japan and was the epicenter of Buddhism. During that time the emperor ordered the construction

of Todai-ji Temple and the world's largest bronze Buddha statue.

These are the types of buildings you see when just strolling down the street. Come on!

 What a cool place for a cat to take a nap.

Our first stop was the Kohfuku-ji Temple. This is the grand staircase up to this incredible area in Nara. This particular temple was founded by one of the most powerful families of this area in the 700's. At the height of its power, this temple consisted of 150 buildings.

This main building above is the Central Golden Hall which houses a very large statue of the Yakushi Buddha. I took the shot below before I got close enough to see that we are not allowed take a picture of any statue inside the Hall. Oops! 

I did find an image of the inside and included it here so you could see it. 

The five storied pagoda is the 2nd tallest wooden pagoda in Japan. It was first built in 730! Isn't that insane!?

Everywhere, and I mean everywhere, you will see deer because Nara Park is home to hundreds of free roaming deer. They are considered messengers of the gods and the over 1000 deer are considered natural treasures. You can buy deer crackers everywhere around the park so they are surprisingly tame and are even trained to bow down for a snack.

And this is my favorite shot of the day. I couldn't take a picture of the inside of the hall but there were no rules about taking one looking OUTSIDE the hall.

You are seriously dodging deer (and deer poop) everywhere. It's cool for about 5 minutes. We continued dodging said poop through the entire park up to the very famous Todai-ji Temple. This massive wooden southern gate stands 25 meters tall and is the entrance to the most powerful of the seven great temples of the area when Nara ruled Japan. Founded in 738, it is one of Japan's most historically significant temples.

On the left and right sides inside the gate are these great big statues of deities that are guarding the temple.  Here is what I could capture and I added a stock photo.

These are spectacular. The detail is incredible considering they were built in 1199!!!! They are at almost 28 feet in height!

You can see the people and the deer lining the path to the great temple.

This main hall is the world's largest wooden structure and it is only 2/3 of its original size. This 15 meter tall Buddha sits inside.

Berenice and I walked back toward the train station and saw this big frog on our way to grab lunch.

We found this wonderful covered market and decided on a tempura lunch.

 What a perfect way to end our exploring of Nara.

Thanks for coming along with me for the ride!