So one weekend in May, my girl friends and I went to Nara for the first time. Our friend Ryosuke and his friends guided us, bringing us first to the famous deer park. After buying senbei, the flat crackers that the deer eat, we passed by a large pond full of turtles and koi fish as we walked to the park.
The deer park was considerably large, and many deer lazed around letting tourists feed them and take pictures. This one looked particularly sleepy..
According to Ryosuke, this temple is the 興福寺の五重塔.
We also saw Nara's mascot, Sento-kun, across the park in front of a large administrative-looking building. Sento-kun is such a creepy and poorly designed mascot.. I'm not very fond of him, but since he's a popular symbol, we took a picture next to him.
After the deer park, we went to see the Todaiji, which is famous for its large buddha statue. There were two large fearsome guardian statues at the entrance. The buddha inside Todaiji was indeed very large..There was a smaller buddha statue situated to its left. Inside the temple smelled strongly of incense...
There was also a thick wooden pole inside the temple with a hole at the bottom where people lined up to try crawling through it. You supposedly either get good luck or good health if you're able to crawl through the hole in the pole.
This is the outside of Todaiji.
(Below) The main buddha. I forgot if it was a bowling ball or a human head, but one of them is suppose to be able to fit through the nostril of this statue.
(Right)The buddha left of the main statue
Though it was interesting, it was a relief to get out of the crowd and the incense-filled temple!
After Todaiji, we took a break and later went to the Nara Park, where the late afternoon sun cast lovely shadows on the beautiful grassy field.
Nara didn't really have a food it's famous for or any characteristics that was extremely impressionable to me, but I felt that his city had a very calm and slow-paced vibe. There was a lot of historic value, especially with the Todaiji temple, but it definitely didn't seem very Japanese (the buddha statues looked like Chinese ones!). I still enjoyed my Nara trip- it was worth the visit!