The day following Kyoto, we found ourselves travelling to Nara. I wanted to see Todai-ji temple. My cousins and aunties have been to this place, so I wanted to see for myself as they told me a lot about the Buddha.
Our breakfast was simple one as we stopped by one of the main stations again. We went to Starbucks :). We had sandwiches - a chicken teriyaki and egg sandwich, washed down with coffee.
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| Mom's chicken teriyaki sandwich (or half of it...hehehe) |
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| Egg sandwich and a latte |
Our first stop was Kasuga Taisha Shrine. On our way to the shrine, we walked past the deer park. And I had fun with these very gentle creatures. I didn't buy anything to feed them. You can buy a pack of biscuits for 100yen and they will jump all over you!
Up next, we took the long trek to Kasuga Taisha Shrine, which according to the map, is at the other end of the area. Mom really struggled with this walk and I was sure that she wanted to give up half-way. When we reached the shrine, I was the only one who went in. So I paid my respects to the shrine was usual. On the way to the shrine, there were many lanterns lined up. These were donated by people throughout the years.
Kasuga Taisha is one of my favorite shrines and you can see why from the pictures below. I love the lanterns and how peaceful it is once you reach the actual shrine. This place was not very crowded at all but the pathways were a bit confusing and I got lost feeling like I was in a maze.
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| Deer posing in front of the lanterns |
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| A small shrine and torii gate on the way to the shrine |
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| More lanterns |
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| Finally arrived at the entrance |
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| More lanterns inside the shrine, on the way to the actual shrine |
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| A newly wed having their photo moment and of course, I had to snap a pic too! |
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They have this on display that day. It was just a narrow pathway to a very dark room.
The walls are lined with mirrors too so it made you feel like there were hundreds of lanterns lit. |
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| One of my favorite pieces inside the exhibit |
So Mom and I walked out of the shrine and had lunch at a teahouse called
the Garden of Kasuga Taisha.
After our lunch, we quickly headed out to Todai-ji Temple.
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| A deer posing in front of the temple |
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| While getting tickets into the temple |
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| Main temple hall |
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| Big Buddha |
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| Mom's Wishes for our family |
Our last stop at Nara is the Tofukuji Temple. This was a relatively short stop as you can already see the temple and the pagoda. Mom suggested that I should go up the pagoda but I wanted to see Osaka Castle, so we skipped that and took the next train out to Osaka. But we took a short stop at a teahouse called
Chaka.
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