where deer roam freely in the city park amongst tourists with their selfie-sticks, luring the animals in with crackers you can purchase. We witnessed a young Japanese boy bowing toward a doe and the deer bowed back! I tried it later with no success getting a response. Maybe I need to work on my bowing to fit in with the culture better!
But once you hike through all of that, you are rewarded with the chance to take in the beauty of Todai-ji Buddhist temple. Its Great Buddha Hall holds the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese as Daibutsu. As if standing under the 15-meter tall Daibutsu didn’t make me feel small enough, knowing we were all inside the largest wooden structure in the world sure did. The Hall was built first in the Nara period and it has been destroyed twice by fire in 1180 and again in 1567. The sheer size of both the statue and the building made me feel tiny, but knowing how long ago humans created these structures made me feel insignificant in the scheme of human history and the world.
next to a babbling brook and exploring the rest of the park grounds and countless shrines, we boarded the train again to continue on to Kyoto. Kyoto station welcomed us with modern architecture illuminated by a seasonal light and music show and large Christmas tree, with the Kyoto tower in the background.
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1 Comment
So cool