Japan’s first permanent capital in 710, Nara is full of World Heritage temples and shrines, six in all. On top of that, only 10km away, Horyuji Temple, with the oldest wooden buildings in the world, remaining in tact since the 8th century.
On our one day visit we managed to visit three temples and a shrine, two gardens, as well as wander through the deer park, where the deer roam free and you can purchase food to feed them.
First stop was Kohfukuji Temple, with its five story pagoda.
Kasuga Taisha Shrine decorated with around 1000 bronze lanterns and lots of stone on the paths leading to the shrine.
After leaving the temple we walked toward the 3rd temple, but it was closed due to some kind of important event with some important people with a large entourage.
Wakakusayama hill, where people pay to walk up the hill!
We walked towards Todaiji Temple, passing the impressive Lecture Hall, overlooking Nara.
Todaiji Temple with the world’s largest bronze Buddha and wooden structure (although currently only 2/3rds of the original size).
Gangoji Temple, the first Buddhist temple in Japan.
A finally Yoshikien and Isuien gardens.
It was cold today, max. 18 degrees, perhaps the coldest day since I came to Japan, so it was Starbucks for coffee before making the 45 minute trip back to our hotel in Osaka.
For dinner we went to a sushi restaurant close to the hotel, that we had noticed returning from dinner last night. A good “old fashioned” sushi restaurant where they make the sushi in front off you – there were three sushi chefs one for each of the sides of the desk you sit at. The sushi was good, with little rice, but lots of fish. You actually got two pieces of sushi per order with an extra piece of fish as sashimi (see e.g. the red tuna pieces, there is an extra piece of fish on top of the suchi pieces).
