Nara, Nara, Japan (February 2025)

After we left Kyoto, we went to Nara, the capital city of Nara Prefecture. Nara is believed to be the birthplace of Japan with significant temples and artwork dating back to the 8th century when Nara was Japan's capital. 

Nara has a lot of deer roaming around the park and nearby temple and shirine. Deer is revered in Nara because a legend says that a deity rode a deer to bring prosperity and happiness. The number of deer roaming around the are was estimated to be 1,300. 

People buy this deer snack to feed them. Literally, deer pulls the clothes of people holding this snack to feed them. 

Some are hungry and active in soliciting food. But others are content and relaxed. 

Meanwhile, some male deer enter into a power struggle.

Next, we visited the Todaiji temple. This temple is famous for its 15-meter-high Buddha statue. It was said that a total of 18 people could stand on his left palm. The original temple was destroyed by fire and has been rebuilt to two-thirds of its original size. However, the temple's main building, known as Daibutsuden or Great Buddha Hall, stands 50 meters tall, 51 meters wide, and 49 meters deep. It is one of the largest wooden structures in the world and was previously the largest in the world until 1998.

There was a museum, but we did not have time to experience it.

Next, we visited Kasuga Taisha Shinto shrine.  This place is definitely one of the most sacred places in Japan for the Shinto believers. It has 3,000 lanterns, made of metals and stones. The lanterns signify the illumination of people. The deer roam around at this shrine which is also a UNESCO Heritage site.

There was a statue of a deer with a sign saying Deer God. 

We spent only a few hours in Nara because we had to travel to Osaka for the night. - Jeffrey

Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan (February 2025)

From Takayama to Kyoto, we traveled ourselves without a guide or a driver. We took a JR Limited Express at Takayama Station, a 2-minute walk from our hotel, to Nagoya Station where we took a Shinkansen to Kyoto. The transit time at Nagoya Station was only 10 minutes, which made us a little nervous, but we ended up having no problem. Nagoya Station is considered the largest train station in Japan.

The following day, we met a new guide, Katsumi-san, and went on a Kyoto City Tour. Kyoto was the old capital city of Japan. Thus, the city is known to have 2,000 temples and shrines. The first place we visited was Kinkaku Temple. The temple's golden color represents its name. 

After Kinkaku Temple, we went to visit Nijo Castle, which was the Kyoto home for the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Edo Period. The Imperial Palace was close by, but later, he persuaded the Emperor to move his Palace to the current Tokyo. 

We went to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine located on Mt. Inari. Inari is a god of rice, fox in appearance, worshipped by most farmers. This shrine is famed for the 1,000 Torii gates to the shrine. All the toriis were sponsored by Shinto believers as indicated in the back of each torii. 

We also went to see Gion District. Gion is a geisha district in Kyoto. Gion has a small but important shrine where all geishas worship in their belief. Geisha is a general term used all over Japan to indicate a woman of art. In Kyoto and western Japan, the term Geiko is used. It means the woman of art. 

While we were there, we did not see any geikos. So I borrowed a couple of photos from Google.

We passed through a temple to meet our driver.

For dinner, we found Yakitori Ichiban Izakaya. Izakaya is a bar-style restaurant where you could order and eat a variety of small dishes. We ended up ordering 25 plates of food. 

A 2-night stay in Kyoto is obviously insufficient to fully understand and experience Kyoto, but we were gratefully content with what we experienced. - Jeffrey