A little boy uses his camera phone to photograph a baby deer.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Wooden Homes and Aggressive Deer

Sunday morning began with Rex and David heading to a nearby Mos Burger, which is a fast food chain featuring some large, crazy burgers that do not, as American commercials would have us desire, "get all over the place" before arriving in one's face. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye to David. As we climbed aboard our tour bus, he made his way onto a subway station to return to Tokyo.

Our first destination on Sunday was Nara, a large park with deer roaming freely about the grounds. In Nara, we were finally able to experience the autumnal scenery we'd been hoping to see. Tiny maple leaves were in the middle of turning red, and the yellow, fan-shaped leaves of the ginko trees were fluttering gracefully to the ground. It was quite lovely.

As far as nature is concerned, the deer are the main attraction in Nara. There are even fuzzy deer headbands sold as souvenirs (naturally, I had to get one for Joe). In addition to being insatiably cute, the deer are highly intelligent. When greeted, the deer bow their heads. That being said, the deer are also incredibly bold. Large rice crackers are sold on the grounds so that visitors may feed the deer. Thus, many deer often go up to humans, looking for a little food. At one point, I turned around to find a deer directly behind me, as if it had been sniffing my butt. It continued to stare at me as I took a picture of it, and did not even venture off when I showed that I had no food to offer.

Front view of Todaiji. The foreground shows the cement path, and the small structure on the right, in front of the main building shows the fountain where people wash their hands.

On the grounds of Nara is Todaiji, a Buddhist temple and the largest wooden structure in the world. Though this obviously makes the building massive, it once was much larger. The problem with wooden structures, of course, is that they can easily be burned down, which is what happened to several sections of the building. The roof of the building has what appears to be golden horns. In fact, these horns are actually fish with their tails pointed toward the sky. The idea was that fish are creatures of the water, and if the building was laden with water elements, fire would not harm it.

The path leading to the front entrance features two interesting characteristics. First, the middle section of the path is made of different colored cement slabs. Each color represents a country the Buddha traveled through to get to Japan.

Secondly, to the right of the building entrance is a small, covered water fountain. This is where visitors go to clean their hands and mouth before entering the building. Though I'd never seen such things in America or Hong Kong, the cleaning of one's hands and mouth seem to be common practice in Japanese temples. Small metal pans with wooden handles are used to collect water and bring it towards the visitor. The water is first poured over the left hand, then the right. The pan is then passed into the right hand so that water can be poured into one's cupped left hand and brought to one's lips to rinse out the mouth. Only then can a person enter the building.

My family's shingle at Todaiji.

Inside Todaiji is a large statue of the Buddha sitting on a lotus flower, flanked by statues of other people significant to Buddhism. The windows seen at the front of the building create a face which represents the face of the Buddha. When the windows are opened, one can see the Buddha clearly.

For religious reasons, photography generally is not allowed inside Buddhist temples and shrines, though the rule seems to vary by structure and country. In my experience, Hong Kong is stricter about this than Japan. Even though photography was allowed for some aspects of Todaiji, my mother told me not to take any photos of the Buddha or the surrounding statues. I was, however, allowed to photograph some models made of the structure and the statue.

One interesting aspect of the building's construction is inside, behind the statues. One particular pillar has a sqaure-shaped hole in its base. The hole was intentional, as it was meant to be placed near the top of the building so that rafters could be placed through it. Obviously, its upside-down placement was a construction mistake, but a story was fabricated around it. In the story, a young son is troubled by his father's ill health, and for some reason, passing through the hole in the pillar moved the powers that be to make his father well again. Due to this story, small children are encouraged to crawl through the hole on behalf of their parents, just for fun.

My mom and I feed the hungry deer.

Many interesting souvenirs and religious charms can be purchased both inside Todaiji and in various areas near it. The one thing that interested my brother and me the most was the purchase of a shingle which could be written upon. The money would be used to help repair Todaiji, and the shingle would be placed on it. We purchased one and placed our immediate family's names upon it, though only three of us were present. Using the calligraphy brush was a bit difficult because, in addition to being left-handed, my free arm was too laden with gifts and souvenirs to keep the sleeve of my peacoat from brushing against the wet paint. After we were done, we had my mom write something in Chinese below it. I believe it's standard Chinese wish of health and good fortune.

Before heading back to our tour bus, we wandered the grounds a bit. I took the opportunity to feed some deer, which was far more stressful than one would think. By the time I'd managed to hand a few to my mom, five or six deer had already crowded around, stretching their necks out to receive the large, round crackers. As soon as I fed one, others began stepping forward, forcing me to take a step backwards and hope my foot would not land in deer poop. Rather than participate in the frantic deer feeding, Rex took pictures of us and probably laughed. Afterwards, we bought some takoyaki (Japanese fried octopus balls) and a roasted yam from nearby vendors and climbed aboard the bus, which took us to Kyoto.
[more Nara and Todaiji photos]

The great Sanmon gate of Chionin Temple in Kyoto.

Arriving in Kyoto

To get to our next destination, we had to drive through quite a bit of Kyoto. Already, I could feel myself intrigued by the city. Just looking out the window, one could see that Kyoto and Osaka were very different cities. Though both are quite modern, Kyoto is not swallowed up by skyscrapers or the hustle and bustle of big city life. Life in Kyoto did not seem rushed, and being in it gave me an inexplicable sense of time and place. Because Kyoto is the former capital of the Japan, many parts of the city have been preserved as historical and cultural treasures, and I imagine this combination of history and modernity is the key to Kyoto's rich atmosphere. It literally felt as if there was something in air that layered itself on every road and every rooftop, making the city seem beautiful, magical, and timeless.

Our first stop was a delicious lunch featuring tofu sashimi and other goodies. I do not know the name of the restaurant, but it was located across from Chionin Temple, a Buddhist temple which, among other things, is known for having Sanmon, the largest temple gate in Japan; having the largest bell in Japan; and being one of the few Japanese filming locations for The Last Samurai.

While in Japan, we adopted a cute little boy! Actually, that is rambunctious little Caleb. While his mom helped us take this family photo, he decided to sidle over and join us.

Lunch was both a visual and culinary delight, though the courses took longer than expected, and I was hoping to have a look around Chionin Temple. Chionin was not mentioned in the tour itinerary (I actually had to look around the Internet to find the name of the place), but we were supposed to have time to walk the grounds by ourselves after lunch. Unfortunately, the traffic we encountered from Nara made this almost impossible. Our tour guide explained that we had to leave the temple at a certain time so that we could get to Nijo Castle in the city before it closed at sunset. Looking at the beautiful gate (which is not being done justice by any of these pictures), many of us on the tour were unhappy about this turn of events. Luckily, we had a few spare minutes after lunch and became determined to stroll through some of the grounds, anyway. After all, would they really leave a good third of the tour group behind?

In order to get to the temple, one must climb a flight of steep steps to the massive gate, which is truly a structure that can only be appreciated when viewed in person. After passing through the gates, a longer flight of steps led to the main grounds. Climbing the staircase was not easy (particularly because I had to go slowly so I could help my mother), but the beautiful grounds were worth the effort. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the top, we only had enough time to take a couple of pictures, catch our breaths, and wait for the burning sensations to leave our thighs. Then, we reluctantly made our way to the bus, taking a side exit which did not require the steps.
[more from Chionin]

Next page: Sunday, November 27, part 2