Japan 11: A huge statue and a ton of red gates

When I got back to my hotel last night, I was completely wiped out.  I wrote a blog quickly so I wouldn't forget any details.  I gave myself extra time to sleep this morning, but when I woke up, I ate, made a phone call, and needed to go back to sleep.  I didn't get out of my room until around 11.  Therefore, some of my plans for the day had to be cut.  I just couldn't get out earlier though.  My body wouldn't allow it.

First up was Nara, the first capital of Japan.  It is known for a temple housing the largest Buddha statue in Japan as well as having a park where deer freely interact with people and bow.  The city is about an hour out of Kyoto.  When I arrived, I saw a book in the train station that I took a picture of, for Miles.



The big words translate to "pokemongo."  Then, when I used the bathroom, I noticed a sign of things to come, when they used a deer as imagery when asking people to keep things clean.



I saw another owl cafe on the way to the park...



When entering the park, I saw this sign, warning about interactions with the deer.



My first encounter with the deer was seeing them across the street, near traffic.  I took a video.  It takes a while to happen, but I still think it is worth posting.  The next video is of the general environment.  The third video is of a deer bowing for food.

The deer were clearly very comfortable around humans, likely because of all of the food given out.  They were very, very well behaved.  The humans, on the other hands, often acted incredibly foolish.  They often acted erratically, making sudden movements and noise and allowing their children to do the same.  One particular fool let their crying baby thrash in a stroller, while screaming, because they themselves were too enthralled with feeding the deer and pulling away from them.  These are the same kind of people that will act shocked that their child is then attacked by the same animal that they acted ridiculously next to.



Nearby was the Todai-ji temple.  It had a grand gate, with huge statues of their protective Buddhist gods.



Once through the entrance, I was greeted with another grand structure, which housed the largest Buddha statue in all of Japan.  Generally, temples don't impress me and neither do statues.  The temple was of a massive scale, but more impressive than that was the statue inside.  My pictures do not do it justice.  It was gargantuan and I was awed by it.



Outside, there was a creepy looking, much smaller statue.



Before returning to the train station, I saw another 5 leveled pagoda.  I also saw a poster for Detective Conan.



I walked back to the train station and the time was already 4:00 pm.  I had to cut out my next stop, which was going to be the Byodoin temple in Uji, that is featured on one of Japan's coins.  Instead, I ended up going to Inari, to see the shinto shrine, Fushimi Inari Taisha.  When initially researching Kyoto, this popped up, but it seemed generally uninteresting to me and too touristy.  Grant, the travel planner, suggested this in the book he made, outlining transportation.  I looked it up again on google and found a blog that talked about the hike to the mountain that was involved.  I had no idea that there was a hike.

I quickly pushed past the crowds and made a right hand turn at one of the first openings past the initial gate tunnels.  The signs were hard to read, but I thought that would be the way.  It led up a hill to a shrine and I chose to continue on the path.  The path was surrounded by a bamboo forest, and by referring the blog's map, it seemed that I had gone the wrong way.  I remembered reading that the bamboo forest surrounded the mountain and that you could go down the other side of the mountain, so I assumed that eventually I'd have an option to climb up this back path, and continued.



I passed a few areas littered with shrinelike artifacts.



As I was approaching the back of the mountain, I ran into two girls that spoke English and were a bit confused as to where they were.  I told them about the back of the mountain that I was headed towards, and they decided to go that way too.  They were from Germany and I told them about my intention on going to Germany next year.

We soon found a path leading up the mountain.  The steps were unusual, in that they had metal nails holding them in place or I guess, preventing them from sliding down.



I reached the top.  I then continued on the path that I thought led down the mountain.



I eventually reached the front of the mountain, which had a great view of Kyoto.  I realized that this wasn't the path down the mountain, but half of the circular path that went around the top of the mountain.  Instead of doing the other half of the circle and then having to redo this one again, I simply went down.  All told, it took about 2 hours to do the hike.



Back at Kyoto main station, I noticed a lego recreation of the train station.  I apologize for the bad photo.



My shirt was soaked with sweat, so I didn't want to ride in a taxi.  The bus wasn't an option either, as the signboard was completely in Japanese.  I decided to walk back to the hotel.  It was only a thirty minute walk.  Halfway there, I found a spacious place that had gyudon.  I ordered using the machine and immediately went to the counter with my receipt, where they had it ready already.  It doesn't get faster than that!

I stopped at a convenience store to pick up bandaids for my ever increasing blisters.  Near the hotel, I crossed a major intersection and took a picture.



I also had to cut out a walk down the Philospher's Path, on the edge of town.  It is a long walk along a canal, with temples along the way.  I was just too beat and there wasn't enough time.  Tonight I will rest!