[Lee usually manages to post these entries BEFORE hitting the futon after each days adventures. However yesterday (Thursday) a brief "lay down" led to several hours of blissful snoozing and left this summary until this morning.]
Nara, Japan's first permanent capital (710 - 784), lies only about an hour by train from Kyoto. Our trip to visit some of its historic attractions there, however, began with a brief stop at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a Shinto shrine on the outskirts of Kyoto itself. The shrine is famous throughout Japan for its efficacy in responding favorably to prayers for commercial economic success. Once requests for aid and support have been answered, the petitioner erects a torii (shrine entrance gate) to acknowledge the divine support received. The result is a riot of color along pathways that extend all over the mountainside behind the shrine itself.
Our second stop of the day was at Todaiji, a World Heritage site, an eighth century Buddhist temple and the largest wooden building in the world. But first we stopped in a nearby arcade for lunch at a local Nara McDonald's (just to say we'd eaten there, don't you know...)
During our temple visit, Sean completed his only real assignment for the entire Japan trip: he successfully crawled through a hole in a pillar located at the rear of the temple building. Doing so (the hole is the size nostril on the temple's image of the Buddha) guarantees good luck and prosperity throughout one's life. Sean thus extends the completion of this task into the third generation - Lee accomplished the feat fifty years ago; Heidi, Alissa, Evan and Jon all did as well during their various visits to Japan. A cool tradition thus extended itself into the twenty-first century!
Sean, Ted and Lee then strolled up to Kasuga Jinja, the Shinto shrine honoring the titular deity of the powerful aristocratic Fujiwara family. The shrine, also a World Heritage site, is well known for its stone and hanging bronze lanterns.
The Fujiwara family also had a pleasure pavilion built in the eleventh century within the confines of their residential compound in nearby Uji, a town renown for its green tea plantations. So, once we left Nara behind, we stopped off to visit Byodoin in Uji, the original pavilion having been transformed later in the eleventh century into an architectural evocation of the Buddhist Western Paradise. The building also appears today on the Japanese ten yen coin.
All this running around was accomplished by train and on foot (although we did hop a taxi at the end of our time in Nara), a first for Lee who usually moves from place to place on this itinerary by comfy tour bus. No wonder fatigue set in with such a vengeance!
We ended the evening at Pronto (for Italian pasta) and Mister Donuts before stopping in to pick up a 4 gig SD memory card for Sean's camera. The Big Camera emporium where we shopped quite blew Ted's mind, yet another overwhelming illustration of the Japanese quest for "endless choice" gone mad!
Nara, Japan's first permanent capital (710 - 784), lies only about an hour by train from Kyoto. Our trip to visit some of its historic attractions there, however, began with a brief stop at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a Shinto shrine on the outskirts of Kyoto itself. The shrine is famous throughout Japan for its efficacy in responding favorably to prayers for commercial economic success. Once requests for aid and support have been answered, the petitioner erects a torii (shrine entrance gate) to acknowledge the divine support received. The result is a riot of color along pathways that extend all over the mountainside behind the shrine itself.
Our second stop of the day was at Todaiji, a World Heritage site, an eighth century Buddhist temple and the largest wooden building in the world. But first we stopped in a nearby arcade for lunch at a local Nara McDonald's (just to say we'd eaten there, don't you know...)
During our temple visit, Sean completed his only real assignment for the entire Japan trip: he successfully crawled through a hole in a pillar located at the rear of the temple building. Doing so (the hole is the size nostril on the temple's image of the Buddha) guarantees good luck and prosperity throughout one's life. Sean thus extends the completion of this task into the third generation - Lee accomplished the feat fifty years ago; Heidi, Alissa, Evan and Jon all did as well during their various visits to Japan. A cool tradition thus extended itself into the twenty-first century!
Sean, Ted and Lee then strolled up to Kasuga Jinja, the Shinto shrine honoring the titular deity of the powerful aristocratic Fujiwara family. The shrine, also a World Heritage site, is well known for its stone and hanging bronze lanterns.
The Fujiwara family also had a pleasure pavilion built in the eleventh century within the confines of their residential compound in nearby Uji, a town renown for its green tea plantations. So, once we left Nara behind, we stopped off to visit Byodoin in Uji, the original pavilion having been transformed later in the eleventh century into an architectural evocation of the Buddhist Western Paradise. The building also appears today on the Japanese ten yen coin.
All this running around was accomplished by train and on foot (although we did hop a taxi at the end of our time in Nara), a first for Lee who usually moves from place to place on this itinerary by comfy tour bus. No wonder fatigue set in with such a vengeance!
We ended the evening at Pronto (for Italian pasta) and Mister Donuts before stopping in to pick up a 4 gig SD memory card for Sean's camera. The Big Camera emporium where we shopped quite blew Ted's mind, yet another overwhelming illustration of the Japanese quest for "endless choice" gone mad!
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