Being a tourist in Nara

Friday, June 14

After a great night's rest, everyone was up and ready for our first adventure as a tourist.  We were heading over to a city called Nara to visit the Todai-ji Temple which is the world's largest wooden structure and houses one of Japan's largest bronze Buddha statue.  It took us about an hour and a half to get there, so at least the ride wasn't too bad (via train).  We then had to walk over to the temple area.  We had been advised that it would be either raining or very hot and humid while we were in Japan - so today it was very hot and humid and I don't think any of us really expected it to be that hot/humid, after all we're used to hot and humid; but it was bad and we were melting fast.  We were very surprised as we got close to the entrance to the temple with the appearance of deer everywhere.  These deer look just like the deer we have here, but these deer are not afraid of people.  Apparently they have some type of sacred regard and are allowed to roam everywhere and are fed by everyone.  Needless to say, they become very annoying and act like goats do in a zoo - they follow you looking for food and then won't leave you alone.  I will say that they are very tranquil to look at when they're laying around in the shade, but I'm just not a big fan of wild animals bothering me.  Some of the ladies were really in love with them and had no problem feeding them, petting them, and taking tons of pictures (one said she was making a "deer diary" - not impressed!).  Once you get to the temple main gate, you become amazed with the sizes of the statues that are protecting the entrance.  Unfortunately, we spent too much time with the deer and just missed some type of ceremony that monks were performing at the temple.  I would have much rather watched that than the deer, but we hadn't gotten our wings yet to fly out and venture on our own, so we were pretty much all staying together.  There really aren't words that can really describe this temple and the pieces inside other than amazing and incredible.  It's also wild to think that these were constructed in the 740 - 750 years.  The buildings have had to have some reconstruction and restoration due to earthquakes and fires, but it's still quite an amazing thing to see.  And of course the grounds surrounding the area are beautiful; the Japanese people love gardening and flowers.  They maintain their properties perfectly and shape many of their trees like the bonsai trees.  There were additional buildings that are part of the complex and we had to walk uphill and climb stairs to reach these areas.  Little did I know that this would just be an introduction to walking up very large hills and climbing numerous, and I mean many, many, many, many, many sets of stairs!  I think we were all huffing and puffing a little by time we reached the top, but we made it.  The view at the top was pretty incredible too.
Here is a link to view pictures from Nara - when you click on it below, you should be able to see another working link that will take you to the album.  There are captions for each picture so make sure you view them individually to see what they're all about.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117256519209776625075/albums/5895317650838417441?authkey=COmaloGp59Oh-AE