Nara Synopsis

I left Seminar House 2 at 8AM and arrived at the train station in Nara at 10:30. Quite the trip! It was nice, though, because it wasn’t that expensive and I was able to read a lot of The Red Tent on the trains. When I got there, I stopped at a small noodle shop and had a bowl of delicious udon for breakfast. I walked up this long, really pretty street lined with restaurants and souvenir shops.

There were tourists everywhere, both Japanese and gaijin. The weather is beautiful at this time of year and the trees are about to hit their peak color probably within the next two weeks, so early November is one of the busiest tourism times in Japan. Nara is popular with tourists all the time, being easy to navigate and absolutely stuffed with cool historical sights. On top of those factors, November seems to be the time that many of the temples display the statues and artworks that they keep secret the rest of the year, and there are many special art exhibitions at museums. In short, these next few weeks are an aesthete-tourist’s dream, although that makes things very crowded. It is the main reason I decided not to procrastinate and got myself out of bed after five hours of sleep on a Saturday; Sundays are the biggest days for sightseeing, and I didn’t want to be in any bigger crowds than I had to.

But back to the story. So this street led to Nara Park, the main attraction of the town, I suppose. It’s this big, well, park (hence the name) inhabited by sacred deer who love biscuits. Within the park there are also art museums, restaurants, shrines, and temples: basically everything you need for a pretty awesome day of gawking, wearing fanny packs, and taking goofy pictures. On the edge of the park there was a really pretty pond that had all these turtles in it. I thought of the Ninja Turtles, being in Japan, but they didn’t look any different from American red-eared sliders, so I don’t think they had crimefighting superpowers to speak of. After wandering around the area trying to get oriented (the signs were surprisingly vague for such a high-tourism area), I finally found the Nara National Museum.

This museum is usually known for its impressive collection of Buddhist art from about the 500s to the 1300s, which is awesome. But the real reason I went was because of the special exhibit of treasures from the Shōsōin. The Shōsōin is basically an early museum or rental storage facility; it’s a storehouse owned by Tōdaiji, a temple in Nara dating from the 700s. The Imperial Household used the storehouse as a kind of Nara Period garage, putting various household items and exotic trinkets and souvenirs in there for storage. So years of stuff—some of it really elaborate, some really mundane, a lot of it from Western Asia via the Silk Road—have been accumulating there for like a thousand years, and the government has kept really close records of all the stuff this whole time. In 1946, the government started picking out several objects to display to the public for about two weeks each year, and that’s what was going on yesterday. Some of the objects were really cool because of their decorations; I especially liked the shakuhachi flute. (Dad, check it out; you might be interested what with your pennywhistle thing and all.) Other things were just strange. You’ve gotta wonder why they kept a mummified ermine. And this coconut is just bizarre. Then again, I still have stockpiles of all my science tests from fourth grade sitting in my bedroom at home, so I really have no room to talk.

I enjoyed the Shōsōin exhibit a lot, but it was very crowded and loud, and you had to fight to see anything up close. It was nice to see so many people interested in art, though. That was cool. I’m not used to art museums being packed. Still, I very much preferred the more permanent collection of Buddhist sculpture that was on display. Much of it was very similar to the stuff we’ve been studying in art history, so that was really cool. There were a couple of objects, actually, that I think we studied specifically, though I’m not sure because “Tempyō Period Miroku” isn’t very specific. There was also a pretty cool collection of ancient Chinese bronze items. That was neat, but there are only so many two thousand year old cauldrons that you can see before getting bored.

After the museum, I wandered around a bit on the museum grounds, where there were many tents set up selling souvenirs and snack foods because the museum is so popular at this time of year. I also got my first closeups with the shika, or deer. You can buy these little packs of biscuits for ¥150 and feed them. The only problem is that as soon as they sense that you have them you get stampeded. It was pretty intense, but at least the deer are smaller than the deer we have at home, and the park caretakers cut off their antlers every year so you don’t get gored. After basically throwing my whole pack of biscuits on the ground and running away from the animals, I watched other people have their fun. It was kinda funny to watch all the families with small children. About half of the small children loved the deer, while the other half were scared out of their minds; all the deer loved all the children. There was one little girl probably about two years old who kept walking right up to these deer that were like eight times her size and patting them on the side. Then there was this kid who ran screaming away from the deer that wanted his biscuit. Very funny.

Stopped for a ridiculously overpriced lunch (¥950!) of curry rice at a convenient little noodle shop in the park area. Despite being financially suckered by the touristy stuff it was a fun atmosphere, Nara Park. You know how Disney World is fun because everyone’s there to have a good time? It was like that. Except my Japanese isn’t that great, so I couldn’t understand when the frustrated parents said typical things like, “We’re on vacation! Stop complaining and have fun.”

Next I walked through the park area proper, where there were even more deer, more biscuits, and more deer attacks. And when I say attacks, I really mean “uncomfortably close encounters with hungry deer.” And did I mention the deer are sacred? That’s why they’re allowed to terrorize the tourists. You can’t beat them off with a stick or anything, either, because I suspect God wouldn’t like that so much. I make these things sound awful; they were cute, really, and just hungry. Heck, if I was surrounded by deer carrying Reese’s Cups, I’m pretty sure I’d mob them to get at the candy.

Anyway, the purpose of going further into Deer World was to get to Tōdaiji, the temple complex that manages the Shōsōin. Tōdaiji, in addition to being a working temple with associated charities including a support program for people with learning differences, is known as featuring the largest wooden building in the world. This building, called the Daibutsuden, houses the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, whose body is 48.91 feet tall, according to my ticket stub. Everything at Tōdaiji is big. You go through Huge Wooden Gate #1, which features two huge statues of fierce Buddhist guardian figures. Then you pick your way through more deer (which, by the way, poop a lot after all those biscuits) and go to Huge Wooden Gate #2, which also has big statues. I got these Aussies to take my picture there, which was nice.

I paid my entrance fee after knocking over a bicycle (no worries--parked and unoccupied) while trying to take a picture of Huge Wooden Gate #2 and then righting it. I then met this American couple and took their picture for them, and they did the same for me. They were really nice grandma-types and they were really worried that my camera made my face look really dark, so I had to keep assuring them that I could fix it on the computer. We kept running into each other at the temple after that, which was fun. I liked them a lot.

Between Huge Wooden Gate #2 and the largest wooden building in the world is a Really Big Lantern (15.15 feet tall). I took pictures of that, then went to the big statue of Binzuru, a being who helps cure ailments. If you rub a part of the statue and then touch that part of your body, it’s said that he will help heal it. I couldn’t reach his abdomen for my ulcerative colitis, so I went for the foot instead and asked to finally get rid of this wart that won’t go away.

Inside the Daibutsuden is more Big Stuff. Really, this whole experience was like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The Daibutsu is, as described, huge, and he’s flanked by two huge bodhisattvas. There are huge guardians behind him. One of the columns that supports the roof has this hole in the bottom that’s pretty funny. It’s said to be the exact size of the Daibutsu’s nostril, and if you can fit through the hole it’s good luck. There were a bunch of school kids crawling through it when I was there. Pretty entertaining.

The statues were cool and all, but really, I liked just being in the space of the great hall. I’m very much a “space” person; I find that being in places with a certain feel about them can really impact my mood. The Daibutsuden was a good space for me. I seem to like dark, earthy, holy, open spaces, I think. I love Mina’s attic, for instance, and Grandma’s basement, art museums, small clearings in forests, and Our Mother of Sorrows church when the lights are off. Anyway, I really liked the space of the Daibutsuden. It was so tall and dark and smelled of incense, and although it was crowded it wasn’t overwhelming.

After the Daibutsuden it was getting late, but I decided to hike up the hillside to Nigatsudō, which is part of the Tōdaiji complex. It’s this beautiful collection of wooden buildings overrun with more of the deer and overlooking Nara. The view was lovely, but I didn’t know anything of the place’s history or purpose, so it was mainly me going, “Ooh, pretty.” However, remember our friend Fudō Myō-ō, the scary fire guy who sits under waterfalls? There was another waterfall for him there, and there was a crab chilling there. I only noticed him after he ran away when I put the metal water dipper under the waterfall for a drink and it made a loud noise, startling both him and me. I love discovering unexpected things!

Rather than walking back, I took the bus to the train station. I got back home at about 8:30, I think, so it was quite the long day. I probably smelled like deer and looked like I had just hiked up a mountain, which I had. It was a very good day, though, and I’m glad I went yesterday instead of today.

Photos to come soon, I hope.