Buddhas and Bows

Today we left Kyoto for the day to visit the city of Nara. Nara is the fifth largest city in Japan and known for being home to 1200 roaming Silka Deers and the largest wooden structure in the world and third largest bronze Buddha statue in the world, according to the UNESCO heritage. 

Kōfuku-ji Temple, one of the seven great temples in Nara

Our guide from our food tour in Kyoto, suggested that we visit Nara, and told us that the deers roam among the people and are friendly and not scared of all the tourists. They also bow to you if you bow to them. We arrived by train, and did the 1 mile walk to Nara Park home to the Silka Deer.

Upon arrival, we saw many deer roaming the park and saw tens of tourists bowing to the dears with no response. Baba thought maybe this was a ploy to make tourists look like fools who just bow down to the deers. We continue to make our way through the park, and then saw a stand that sold deer crackers, and here they were even more deers, many of whom were a little aggressive to some of the tourists, who were handing out crackers.  An elderly Japanese man took M and O with him and taught them how to feed the deer and get the deer to bow to you.  Once they figured it out, Baba bought our package of deer crackers and we headed to a less populated area of the park to try out what we had learned…it was amazing and other tourists watch Baba, M and O with awe like they were deer whisperers. 

After we gave away all the crackers, we headed to the famous Tōdai-ji Temple, a UNESCO heritage site, which is the largest all wooden structure in the world and houses the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha which claims to be the third largest bronze Buddha in the world. 

Tōdai-ji Temple

Daibutsu or Great Buddha