Nara and the giant buddha,,,

Nara is 45m by Rapid Express from Kyoto on JR's Nara Line (the same line that runs to the tourist hotspot of Inari, and the warmspot of Uji). There are many things to see in Nara, but for us, the main attraction there was the giant buddha in the Todai-ji ("Eastern Great") Temple. It proved to be worth the visit!

Entrance to Nara Park at the top of Sanjodori Street.

Striking design of the National Museum Buddhist Art Library

Like many/most Japanese temples, Todai-ji is protected by a massive gate called Nandaimon ("Great South Gate"), which tries to rival the spectacle of the shrine itself. And either side of the gate are giant and fierce-looking guardians. The gate guardians are, as usual, dusty monsters really difficult to photograph because they are behind wire mesh, in speckled light with their heads in the dark. Nandaimon featured in the John Wayne movie The Barbarian and the Geisha as a city's gates. And, the famous British soprano Sarah Brightman has performed in concert at Todai-ji.

Huge gate guarding the Todaiji shrine.

Fearsome guardian defending the gate at Todai-ji.

The Great Buddha Hall, called Daibutsudenitself is a massive wooden structure, supposedly the largest such in the world, although this ~1700AD model is 30% smaller than two previous incarnations both lost to fire. The original was built in 752AD. There is no doubting that visitors are awestruck when they first absorb the size of this building.

The Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji in Nara, the world's biggest wooden building.

Complex eaves and detail on the Buddha Hall.

Massive doors to the Great Buddha Hall.

Guided school group at the Great Buddha Hall.

Inside the Hall is the huge 500t bronze (but painted black) buddha, Vairocana or Daibutsu, another awe-inspring sight with amazing vital statistics. The statue's shoulders span 28m.

Front view of the great bronze buddha.

And another view.

One of the guardians inside the Great Buddha Hall.

Wooden buddha with healing powers.

Todai-ji is within the huge Nara Park on the east end of downtown. The Park is home to deer which are regarded as "divine messengers" in buddhist mythology. Signs warn that the deer are "wild" and that they will "bite", "kick", "butt" and "knock down" but what they seem mostly interested in is cadging food off visitors. They know where to find it too - vendors in the park sell "deer crackers" touted as being safe for deer consumption.

The wild deer in Nara Park know exactly who is selling the "deer crackers".

It's about 2km from Nara Station to Todai-ji and we walked there and back and around town. There are many interesting things to see in the park, the main street and the back lanes.

This Sorin (a set of treasures) would normally be placed on top of a pagoda.

Five storied pagoda in Kohfukuji Temple topped with Sorin.

Dragon head faucet at the Sourthern Octogonal Hall in Nara.

Fruit tree with the Southern Octagonal Hall at the Kohfukuji Temple.

Great cycad at the Jokyoji Temple.

Pleasant shopping and dining lane in Nara.

Intricate rainwater guttering on this Nara building.

Our hotel in Nara was the Nikko, affiliated with the airline JAL. It is connected to the station, so very convenient, and we watched trains from our tiny room.

Predawn view of Nara across the station from the Nikko Hotel.

You can't beat a hotel connected to the railway station, especially when its snowing when you leave.

Kyoto - coffee, alcohol and more shrines...

A Kyoto bus turns around Gion Corner in front of the Yasaka Jinja Shrine.

Our hotel for 5 nights has been the Okura Kyoto, at the corner of Oike and Kawaramachi Streets, was a taxi ride from Kyoto Station for us and our luggage. The Okura is possibly the best we have stayed at so far on this trip. Our room is a big suite, the bathroom was spacious, the shower was hot and forcefull etc etc. Thanks Alan for arranging this stay! A great buffet breakfast was in the top floor restaurant with a great view to the east across the river, and a leaflet explained what all the landmarks are. The Okura let us check in early, and has direct underground access to a shopping centre and a subway station.

One of the very best hotels on this trip, the Kyoto Okura.

Origami cranes let for us by staff at the Okura.

The Kamogawa River travels in a straight line south down the east side of Kyoto and no doubt helped to define the rectangualr grid of this city.

Earlier crossings of the Kamogawa River have been replaced by modern bridges and even stepping stones.

Early cherry blossoms at a high school in downtown Kyoto.

Most of the tourist hotspots are in the hilly rim surrounding Kyoto, but this shrine is right in downtown on Oike-dori.

Coin laundry we used in Kyoto was tiny, modern, clean & tidy and we had to take our shoes off.

After some exhausting days on Kyoto buses, we decided to have a relaxing, walking day assisted by the subway. Higashiyama Station is only a few stops away from the hotel, and from there we walked to Shoren-in Temple just to look at its very old sprawling camphor trees, and we found a nice quiet little zen garden there too. This is a pleasant spot bypassed by most visitors, it seems.

Ancient camphor trees outside the Shoren-in Temple.

Serene zen garden at Shoren-in.

Virtually next door is Chion-in a huge and popular temple complex where the major shrine Mieido is undergoing a massive renovation and is entirely covered by a huge scaffolding shed which almost dominates the skyline. The works are not discouraging visitors - the place was quite crowded with both visitors and worshippers. Chion-in has yet another massive san-mon gate at the front steps.

Another huge but characteristic san-mon gate at Chion-in.

Bamboo grove at the Chion-in Temple complex.

Mossy ramparts on the hike upto Chion-in.

Created from wasteland only 300 years ago, Maruyama Park is very popular year round.

Under guidance of a walking map, we found Maruyama Park, a wasteland when developed some 300 years ago, now a paradise of a Japanese garden whose cherry trees must be a picture in spring. But our main objective of the walk was a giant buddha backing into the hills that we could see from our breakfast room, and which (from the hotel's annotated flyer) we figured out to be the Ryozen Kannon temple, which doesn't feature much in Kyoto highlights.

Considering the crowds nearby, it was very quiet at Ryozen Kannon, and maybe we discovered why. It memorialises some unleasant truths. The 24m high buddha is "A Tribute to The Unknown (Japanese) Soldier - World War II" according to the brochure, and an adjacent memorial is for unknown allied soldiers who died on Japanese soil or occupied territories during the war. A large card index purports to contain the names, one to a card, of every such allied soldier. And, within the temple, there is a sad memorial to miscarried babies. There are cases of tiny statuettes, which now number just under 5000.

Giant buddha at Ryozen Kannon is a tribute to unknown Japanese soldiers who died in WW2.

This memorial at Ryozen Kannon is for allied soliders who died on Japanese territory during WW2.

Side view of the buddah Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

Making wishes at Ryozen Kwan-on Temple.

Many of nearly 5000 statuettes at the memorial to miscarried foetuses.

Just south of Ryozen Kannon we stumbled on a shopping/cafe area which is one of the prettiest we've seen. The main street in this area was labelled Ninen-zaka Path and in that area we also saw the Yasaka Pagoda, apparently the third highest wooden structure in Kyoto.

Unheralded Ninen-zaka Path is one of the most pleasant streets in Kyoto.

We figured we would walk home from here, even though snow was still falling. We passed through the area called Gion, a very popular touristy district, found some lunch, and walked along Shimbashi Street, a reputedly beautiful historical street. It was virtually closed - obviously Sunday is not a working day along here.

These two schoolgirls asked us to participate in a survey about our favourite foods in Japan and at home.

Drip falling from a bamboo pipe at a frozen washing fountain. Note that trapped leaf!

Tasteful craft store near Gion.

The "Happy Bicycle" shop specialises in tiny models like these.

The Yasaka Pagoda overlooks a popular shopping lane near Ninen-zaka St.

Endless selfies by young ladies in kimonos.

On another day we did some socialising and visited friends of Alan Gibson in the Kyoto area of Saiin. Saiin is towards the middle of Kyoto, so well away from the touristy rim, but near the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. Eddi (Australian born, Italian by heritage) and his Japanese wife Hiromi own a cafe called Caffellatte in Shijo Street and gave us a great welcome. We enjoyed paninis, espresso coffees and gelato, and great conversation. You can find Caffellatte at http://caffe-llatte.com/index_e.php, we can recoomend it. Thank you Eddi and Hiromi!

Hiromi and Eddi at Caffellatte in Saiin.

In the evenings in Kyoto, when not after coffee, we usually wanted something stronger, but found bars were often expensive and (worse) smoky! We know that Japanese are renowned as heavy smokers, but frankly, have scarcely noticed smoking at all, wherever we have been, until we went into a bar. Smoking is clearly now discouraged in cities, and is outright banned in some streets. Restaurants have no smoking, or at least no-smoking areas. But bars! Well, that discourages us from having another drink, which is a good thing!

Steep cover charges are apparently common, and when you are not drinking that much, makes it an expensive tipple. Frankly, we paid too much for a drink or two in several places. Tourists' dislike of the cover charges must be becoming known - we now notice places advertising no cover charges for foreigners.