Nara and the Buddha

I headed up to Nara this morning with TM to have a look around and see the largest bronze statue in Japan. I primarily wanted to go Todai-ji temple and in fact spent most of the time in Nara just walking around the temple and the grounds...it's massive. There are semi-wild deer EVERYWHERE (sika I think, have a look at the photos) and they are treated like the cows in India. The deer were originally regarded as divine messengers of of Kasuga-jinja's Shinto gods and anyone who killed one was subsequently shown the same fate. Vendors sell "deer biscuits" which the deer go crazy over...feeding them was dangerous and my toes have the bruises to prove it! Beautiful beasts though.

Anyway, Todai-ji was founded in 745 and the main hall is STILL the worlds largest wooden building...it's impressive the say the least. I was looking at the main temple and wondering what was different about the surroundings...it was the grass!!! A beautiful lawn of rich green grass. It was the first time seeing grass like that since I have arrived in Nippon. A beautiful place to be in, very peaceful and a somewhat soothing atmosphere there, could have stayed there all day. Not so many people milling about, mainly gaijin tourists so it was pleasant enough.

The Buddha in the Todai-ji temple is HUGE. It is 15 metres tall and pretty old. There are cool samuri-type figues there also and the monks are there selling charms, telling fortunes and just look plain bored. If anyone gets to Japan, you should check out Nara, it's well worth it, the photographs hopefully will do it justice.

Got back from Nara, met DS to go to a barber and proceeded to get a no.1 all over....I'll probably get sacked on Monday but feck it I'll plead insanity and an inability to understand what they were saying to me. It'll grow back...great though for the heat as it's stifling.

Might be heading out tonight so all will be revealed in the morning...

bye for now