Yesterday morning Katie and I decided to head to Inari, to visit Fushimi Inari-taisha, a set of shrines surrounded by hundreds of torii gates leading up to the top of a mountain. We rode the local train down from Kyoto (a first for us; we've been taking "Rapid" and "Special Rapid" trains everywhere) and exited the station to walk right into the entrance gate. We decided to walk up to the halfway point of the site, as it was estimated to be about two hours to the very top, but after the first hour the number of gates drops significantly, and there is a lookout point at the halfway mark to look over Kyoto. Soon after starting, the density of gates became sobering, as we walked underneath hundreds of gates close together within a matter of moments. At various points up the mountain, we encountered several clusters of shrines, each containing between a few and dozens of shrines and in various states of use. We even found a couple that had candles and incense burning, recently visited by worshipers. We continued up the unending stairs to the lookout point, which had indeed taken an hour, and admired the view of the city, before heading back down those same stairs (there were, seriously, hundreds of stairs; thousands, maybe) and getting back to the entrance plaza.
Taking the train down, we switched to a Rapid train at an exchange stop and headed down to Nara, one of the old capitals of Japan. We had previously decided to do a city walk suggested by Katie's guidebook, so we got started heading to Nara Park, picking up a bento and some drinks on the way. Nara is known for its friendly deer, which will come up to you on the street looking for handouts. We didn't buy any deer snacks, but they certainly came up to us anyway! It was kind of cool seeing the deer roaming the sidewalks and little parks alongside people, although various signs reminded visitors that the deer are wild animals. Seemed tame to me.
Anyway, we first came to a pair of gardens on a side street right by the park's entrance, one of which was free to foreign visitors. We filled out a short survey for foreign visitors, and entered the park. There was a teahouse with handblown glass windows, a pond garden, and several dry gardens around the grounds, all of which were very interesting and beautiful. Additionally, we could see over the wall into the paid garden, so we felt comfortable skipping that one. We stopped to eat lunch by the stream that flowed between the two before heading into the park to see a huge gate, Nandai-mon, with two Nio guards on either side. The guards were huge and terrifying, and marvelous to behold. Behind the gate, and in a secondary complex, was the largest wooden building in the world, Todai-ji. (This claim seems to be disputed, but they still call it such in the park.) The building is actually 2/3 the original size, due to earthquake and other structural damage requiring it be rebuilt in the 1700s. We entered to look at the largest bronze Daibutsu statue in existence, which was humbling beyond words. Even though we took pictures, they don't really convey the scale of the statue. We walked around the whole complex, admiring various smaller statues around the Daibutsu, before heading out of the complex.
Outside, people were greeted by more deer, one of which was so excited at the prospect of food that it pooped right on the sidewalk. Katie and I decided to go up - more stairs - to a Shinto shrine called Nigatsu-do. Overlooking Todai-ji and all of Nara, it juts out over a hill and houses a few different shrines. We decided after this to head back to the train station, and walked through the park following a different path. We saw several herds of deer eating sakura from the ground before exiting the park. We stopped by a 5-story pagoda on the way back, which was next to a temple under construction, then continued to a souvenir shop where I picked up a statue of a guardian. Finally, after thousands of stairs and a few miles of walking, we made it back to the train. We ate dinner at the hotel, where each of us finally got to try some Japanese beef. It was succulent, in Katie's words.
Today is our day of rest. We are off to Sanjusan Temple, followed by an onsen, and then a high quality ryokan where we will get some much desired R&R. Naptime sounds awesome.
-B
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