Nara's Most "Endeering" Image
by Confucius
Oh no, another VT Nara page with deer puns! Yet all tourists leave Nara with a warm recollection of the friendly deer that roam freely through Nara Park and on the grounds of Kasuga Shrine.
The temptation to combine "dear" and "deer' into one sentence is almost as strong as the temptation to feed the deer that sour plum rice ball that you've been carrying around in your pocket since Osaka.
Special deer sembei (Japanese crackers) are sold by attendants to ensure that proper nutrition is given by the herds of tourists who visit Nara Park and Kasuga Shrine. I put a deer sembei in my mouth, not so much to taste it for myself but rather to pose for a photo offering it to the most docile deer I could find. The resulting exhibition was the talk of the town as Japanese schoolgirls covered their mouths in a collective giggle and pointed to the strange foreigner ("hen na gaijin").
Lot of students everywhere
by jlvillalba
I went in low season, but, anyway, my impression is that the place can be full of tourist, but the resort is so big, and full of parks, that you can easily move, and the longest distance vthere is 30 minutes walking.
Nara National Museum
by Rabbityama
The Nara National Museum is among the best museums in the nation, especially for those interested in Buddhist art. The museum is filled with amazing Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and other artifacts. You can easily spend half a day in this museum looking at all of the exhibits. Inside there are stands that advertise "English guides". These individuals are not guides in the sense that they give you a tour of the museum: They are there to answer questions. If you are interested in the art, these guides have a lot of information to offer IF you ask the right questions.
The trick is to ask open-ended questions (Ex: "What is a mandala?", "What is the meaning of this?", "Where were these used?", "Who/What does this statue depict?") These types of questions will get them talking. You can learn a lot about Buddhism and Buddhist art if you have the time to talk!
The entrance fee is 500 yen however, special exhibits can raise the price up to 2000 yen.
Temple-guards of the Buddha-hall
by globetrott
The giant temple-guards of Todaji Temple
are looking very grim in order to protect the temple against bad spirits and ghosts and in my last photograph you can see the giant size of them against the small tourists passing by them while entering the temple: these wooden sculptures date back to the year 1199 and are about 8,5 meters high.
In my 2nd photo : the temple-guard is standing on the head of a bad creature
Deer everywhere
by meeshelmybelle
I hope that I got this right, so if you are from Japan, and I chose the wrong Nara off the list then please let me know.
So I visited a town called Nara in Japan. It is a city full of deer. There are many open areas in this city where the deer roam. There are guys whose job it is to de-antler the deer. I guess it for the safety of the poeple that they do this. So that the deer dont fight with each other, men go around, capture a deer and cut off its antlers.
THis city is also home to a famous giant bronze buddha. I went there with my Japanese cousin who speaks no english, and I speak no japanese, the entire time we pantomimed our emotions about the buddha. I dont think we understood each other, the only thing that we could really kind of talk about was punk music. he is very much into punk and really liked the band Green Day which was having a concert in Tokyo that week.
ANyways, Nara is a somewhat small town with lots of older buildings and shrines and parks.
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Yakushiji Temple
Julia leaps with a deer
front of the izakaya
stood the test of time
