Editor’s note: like Sam, visiting Nara was one of my favorite parts of both of my Japan trips. Also like Sam, both of my visits focused on Nara Park. You can read about my experience here. And for more of Sam’s adventures, click here to visit his index page.
It is springtime, and when thinking of spring, I think of one of my favorite cities that I visited in that season. I never knew of Nara until I started planning my trip to Japan. For many who plan trips to Japan, they only have Tokyo and Kyoto on their itinerary, and Nara often gets overshadowed. However, located only a 35 minute train ride from Kyoto, Nara is well worth a visit, and it ended up being one of the more memorable places in Japan that I got to visit. Today, Nara has around 350,000 people, which by Japanese standards is not particularly large, and in fact it does not even crack the top 60 cities by population in the country. However, from 710-784, it was the capital of the Japanese Empire and tremendous building took place over this time to make the city one of the most culturally significant in the nation. All of the places I am writing about in this article are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ancient Nara.
Nara is a great town to walk around in; there are boutique shops and nice restaurants and coffee shops (we went to an owl café that had real, live owls!). There are neighborhoods that make you feel like you’re in old Japan like Naramachi, with its wooden houses. Yet, the main attractions of Nara are found in Nara Park, a sprawling, forested urban park of 660 hectares. It is in this park that you will also find Nara’s most famous residents, its sacred Sika deer. Hundreds of deer roam the park and will happily come up to visitors, expecting some food, which you can buy in the park. While the deer are very friendly, they can get a little aggressive about the food and swarm and chase tourists who start feeding them, so if this sounds amazing, then do it, but if it sounds like something that will give you a lifetime of nightmares and therapy, you might want to avoid it. These deer are considered sacred to both the history of Nara and within Shintoism. According to legend, the Shinto god of thunder, Takemikazuchi, arrived in Nara riding one of these deer. Furthermore, in Shintoism, these deer are considered to be intermediaries delivering messages between the gods and people.
Within the park is one of Nara’s more famous Shinto shrines, Kasuga-taisha, built in 768 by the Fujiwara family. The shrine is known for its many bronze lanterns inside of it. To be honest, much like churches in Europe, the Shinto shrines of Japan became so numerous and were so similar that while this one is culturally significant to the people in Nara, what is most memorable about Kasuga-taisha was not the shrine but what led up to the shrine. In the surrounding Kasugayama Primeval Forest, there are 3000 stone lanterns, representing the 3000 Kasuga shrines throughout Japan, that lead up to this shrine. These thousands of lanterns are lined up in some parts and staggered in others, and are hauntingly beautiful in the forest. They appear to be old and many have moss growing on them. What was particularly neat was when Sika deer would emerge between them. When walking through this forest, there is a peacefulness and a sense of holiness where a spiritual connection between nature and humans exists.
Finally, within the park, is the most significant of the seven holy temples of Nara, Todai-ji. Todai-ji Temple was first built in 738 and opened in 752; however, after numerous fires, the current Kondo, or great Buddha Hall, was built in 1709. When it went through structural upgrades in 1974, over 100,000 people worked on this project as Todai-ji is one of the largest wooden structures on earth. As you walk through the 13th century nandaimon, Great Southern Gate, it will be apparent that you are walking up to something impressive. This temple is listed as one of Japan’s National Treasures, a ranking designated for Japan’s most important cultural locations.
Inside Todai-ji are numerous statues of heavenly guards watching over the temple. The three most famous statues in Todai-ji are two 15 meter (49 foot), 500 ton Buddhas. One of the statues is called the Nyoirin-Kannon and is a shiny, golden sitting Buddha with a raised palm. Another statue is a similar sitting Buddha with its other hand raised, the Kokūzō Bosatsu. In the middle of these two might be Japan’s most famous Buddha, the Daibutsu, or Giant Buddha. This Buddha was completed in 752 CE after nine years of building. The Daibutsu is a figure that is so ancient, massive, and culturally significant that visitors should take some time to admire it. Another important statue that is smaller but very unique in the temple is the Wooden Binzuru, a wooden healer statue of the Buddha. When walking around the Great Buddha Hall, there are numerous large wooden pillars holding up the hall. One of the pillars that you definitely want to check out is the Daibutsuden, meaning Daibutsu’s nostril. The pillar has this name because it has a hole that is supposed to be the size of the Daibutsu’s nostril. As this is in the same hallway as the Daibutsu, so you can easily compare and see that the hole is significantly larger than the Daibutsu’s nostril as it is big enough for a full grown adult to crawl through, which is exactly what you are supposed to do! According to tradition, one who crawls through the Daibutsuden’s nostril will receive Enlightenment after this life; I would say that that is worth the trip alone!
When you visit Kyoto, make sure that you do this easy day trip. You will have a blast and see incredible wonders of Japan, while having smaller crowds than Kyoto; plus, you will get to play with deer, and what is better than that on vacation?
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