Nara, Japan (March 21, 2016)

Reading Length: Giant Tub 'o' Popcorn

Davin Reporting!
   
The sun has risen on another glorious day in the land of the rising sun!  Although this is technically our first day in Kyoto, we are actually planning to go to Nara today, home to Todaiji Temple.  To get there, we have to walk back across the street to the train station, but this time we’re taking a local train, rather than the Shinkansen. 
   
The train was quite crowded, especially at first, and I noticed that quite a number of people on board were westerners– clearly tourists just like us.  That was probably the first sign that we were heading into a tourist trap
   
The ride through the countryside to Nara took about 45 minutes and was fairly uneventful.  I spent the time studying the local Japanese buildings.  I think if I lived in Japan, I would much prefer to live in one of these smaller villages or suburbs, rather than in one of the big cities.  The big cities in Japan are just too crowded! 
   
To enter or exit the train station, you need to pass through a turn-style type gating system.  With a normal ticket, you simply insert it into the gate, and the system just calculates if you’ve paid enough, and if you have it lets you out (there fare adjustment stations if it turns out you haven’t paid enough).  However, this system does not work with the JRP, so instead you have to show it to the employee that is watching each gate for special needs like this.  That’s how it usually works, anyway. 
   
Here at Nara there are apparently so many people arriving with JRPs that they actually set up a special station to handle all of them!  That was the second sign that we were entering a prime tourist destination.  We exited the station and began our walk to Todaiji Temple.  Nara seemed like a fairly nice town, and definitely not as busy as Kyoto or Tokyo, although there were a fair number of tourists about, both Japanese and obvious foreigners.
 

The temperature today, and actually for most of our time in Japan, has been fairly cold.  Unfortunately, today’s temperature was that annoying border between decently warm, and too cold. So, when you’re standing in the sun you’re too hot, but when you take off your sweatshirt the wind starts blowing or the sun goes behind a cloud, and you’re suddenly freezing your ass off!

The walk to Todaiji Temple took us through a park where there are “sacred deer”.  These deer are protected, and many people feed them, which has led to them standing around, harassing people for food.  Amusingly, there are signs warning people that the deer are still wild animals, and sometimes they bite or butt people.  I also felt they looked rather mangy, so I was perfectly happy to keep my distance from them.

[Kristin Interjection: There are also signs that tell you not to feed the deer. You are allowed to feed them but only if you buy special “deer crackers” which are sold all around the park. I didn’t feel the need to feed the deer, but I took many pictures. D had to keep yelling at me to stop taking pictures of the deer. “Don’t touch the deer!” he said. (I wasn’t touching any deer!) “You have enough deer pictures now, come on!” he said. Hahaha!

Todaiji Main Gate

P.S. The deer were sacred. After WW2, we Americans stripped the deer of their sacred status. They are just protected ho-hum deer now. ;p]
   
Todaiji Temple is one of Japan’s most famous temples, although embarrassingly I don’t actually know why.  In fact, I’m not actually sure how I heard of Todaiji and why I wanted to see it so much (maybe from a Samurai movie?)!  In any case, Todaiji consists of a large wooden building, enclosed by temple walls.  Like many castles and temples in Japan, Todaiji has burned down multiple times.  The original incarnation of the temple dates from more than 800 years ago, while the modern version of the building is only about 300 years old. 
   
There is a very large main gate at the entrance to the temple, however that is currently closed off, so you can be routed through the ticket office on the side.  In front of the temple there is also a large boulevard with an even larger gate further in the distance! 
  

Todaiji Main Hall

Todaiji had a large, main Buddha inside, and a few other statues, all of which were impressive in their own right.  There were a few models of the temple at various points in the past.  There was also a pillar with an opening that people could crawl through, and a long line of people waiting to do so (it’s a bit inexplicable exactly why that attraction exists)!

[Kristin Interjection: The hole to crawl through was quite small and only children seemed to be doing it and their parents excitedly snapped their photos as they crawled through!]

The Main Hall's Buddha

However, what struck me most about Todaiji was how excessively commercialized it was.  You could buy candles for 50 yen, roof tiles for who knows how many yen, blessing charms that would later be burned for 600 yen, and fortunes for 200 yen. 
   
In addition to that, the inside of the temple hosted massive gift shops selling all kinds of worthless trinkets.  This gift shop had to be close to one hundred feet long, and it was located inside the main temple building, which was just bizarre. 

[Kristin Interjection: But this was very convenient for us being able to obtain our daily postcard right there inside the temple!]

Then, to top things off, at the exit from the temple complex there were another two or three hundred feet of gifts shops!  It was absolutely ridiculous!  All I can say is that Todaiji must be a real money maker for Buddhism in Japan. 
   
What struck me as especially odd about the whole thing is that Todaiji is nominally a religious building.  So, seeing all these shops inside felt akin to entering a cathedral in Europe and discovering a gift shop running three quarters of the way to the altar!  It felt strangely out of place, and even inappropriate.  Then again, maybe capitalism is the true religion of modern Japan?  (Although, in that case, I’d expect restaurants to stay open later than 9 PM!)

After leaving Todaiji Shopping Center, we walked through the large gate along the entrance boulevard and were greeted by even more shops!  This place was a total tourist trap!  There were also hundreds and hundreds of people here, even though this was still the slow season!

[Kristin Interjection: The main walking road through the park was crawling with people, and we could barely move, so we quickly abandoned that route and headed to some paths that were less populated.]

    
There was a small mountain near Todaiji, and we saw some people on top taking pictures, so we decided to hike to the top.  It turns out this was also an attraction, and hiking up to the top cost us another couple of dollars (there was a sign indicating that AAA members should get a discount here, but the lady at the ticket counter didn’t recognize it, and it wasn’t worth arguing to save only a dollar).  The hike to the top was fairly strenuous, so my DDR training definitely paid off here! 

[Kristin Interjection: I didn’t too bad but he almost left me in the dust. The first part was very steep and I had to take a breather at the top! Lucky for me it changed to switchbacks at that point!]

   
The top offered a nice view of Nara.  Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy, which I suspect is at least partially due to pollution.  The air quality since we left Australia really has not been that good.  It seems like a lot of the world is quite polluted.  I’m not exactly surprised– I knew SE Asia, and especially China were dirty places– but it is still a bit depressing to see it in person.  It does make California look even better by comparison, though. 
   
The next stop was the Kasuga Taisha shrine which is a 1300 year old Shinto shrine.  I was eager to see this shrine, because while we’ve already seen a lot of Buddhist temples, this will be the first Shinto shrine we’ve visited.  On the way to the shrine we found a vending machine that sold ice cream bars, so we each purchased one to recharge ourselves for the journey.  Amusingly, a woman at a nearby shop quickly noticed we’d purchased an ice cream bar, and ran outside to collect the cardboard box it came in (maybe there has been a problem with people throwing the box on the ground, since there is no trash can readily available?).

One of the defining aspects of Shintoism are stone lanterns, which are supposed to serve as homes for the kami/spirit-gods.  There were literally hundreds of these lanterns around the shrine, and they were a fairly impressive sight.  To be honest, I actually like the lantern as a potential yard decoration, regardless of its religious significance!

Unfortunately, some of the temple was under renovation, so it was currently off limits to visitors, but we did get to see enough of the temple to get a taste of Shintoism.  The temple was decorated predominantly in red-orange, and featured even more lanterns.  There were also bells which you could ring for a blessing (after making a donation, of course).  Watching people making offerings revealed the Shinto version of showing respect to be to clap twice and then bow.

   
One interesting room at the temple was a long, narrow, dark room, featuring a number of lit lanterns.  The room was completely dark except for the lanterns, and there were mirrors on the wall, which made it seem like there were even more lanterns than there actually were.  There was a wooden divider in the center of the room, and you walked down one side and then back out the other.

Like at Todaiji Temple, there was also a shop where you could buy fortunes.  Here, however, not all the fortunes were positive.  If you received a negative fortune, you had to tie it to a wooden structure, which was supposed to cancel them out.  While, the idea may be a bit silly, it is at least a bit more interesting than the practices of some other religions. 
   
We left Kasuga Taisha by following the main boulevard leading to the shrine, and discovered that there was a line of lanterns lining the entire boulevard leading up to the shrine.  Overall, I have to say I came away much more impressed by Kasuga Taisha than Todaiji.  Part of it may have been the novelty of seeing a Shinto shrine (I’ve already seen a lot of Buddhist temples), but Todaiji was also way overly commercialized, and there were way too many people there.  I honestly don’t know if I would even recommend visiting Todaiji– it wasn’t even the best Buddhist temple I have seen.

 
Earlier in the day, while on the way to Todaiji, we had passed by an inexpensive Japanese curry restaurant, so we now proceeded there for a late lunch (when we’re on the move, it seems we’re lucky if we get around to eating lunch by 3PM or 4 PM).  I’ve had Japanese curry before, so I knew it would be good, and this meal did not disappoint.  Curry is the other side of Japanese food from sushi and shabu-shabu, rather than getting a little food for a lot of money, you get a lot of calories, for relatively little cost!  In fact, we ordered the “large” curry, and almost ended up with more than we could manage to eat!

[Kristin Interjection: It was delicious! I think Curry Katsu is my favorite Japanese food. I felt that way the last time I visited, and my taste buds still agree with that assessment. Of course, I still super duper love sushi, sashimi, and chicken teriyaki! MmmMmmMmm!]
   
After eating, we headed back to the train station and returned to Kyoto.  The last thing for the day was another visit to the Japanese restaurant across from our hotel.  This time we ordered Motsunabe, instead of shabu-shabu.  Actually, Motsunabe is very similar to shabu-shabu.  A cook pot is also brought to your table, and you add ingredients to it.  The difference is that this pot is much larger, and it takes much longer to cook your ingredients.  You basically cook and eat the ingredients of the pot, and then when there is nothing left, you add the broth to your rice, and finish it off.

 While conceptually it does not seem that difference from shabu-shabu, the overally experience is surprisingly much different.  Amusingly, I did not really enjoy the motsunabe nearly as much as the shabu-shabu, while Kristin thought it was much better!  I guess it’s all just a matter of perspective.  Oh, and we also rounded out this meal with another tempura ice cream, before calling it a night!

[Kristin Interjection: The nabe was more like a soup with all the ingredients added at the same time. So I could eat several items together, which is the way that I like it! I’ll emphasize again how delicious tempura vanilla ice cream is. If the version at the Del Mar Fair is at all the same, then I know what I’ll be getting every year at the fair!]

Tomorrow’s Adventure: Kyoto Day 1 (March 22, 2016)