Monday March 28, 2016
Today was our day to visit Nara which was the first capital of Japan from 710 to 794. It is located about an hour from Kyoto. Our first destination was the important Shinto shrine – Fushimi Inari Taisha. We made our pilgrimage up the steep hill:
The bus drove us to a residential neighborhood with little shops and restaurants. A bride and groom were posing for professional photographs.
We had a Japanese lunch of noodles and tempura:
After a tasty lunch, we continued on to Kasuga-taisha and Shin-en Garden famous for its thousand lanterns.
We went to Todaiji Temple, which means big eastern temple, to see the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha. Construction of the Great Buddha Hall began in 728. It was rebuilt twice after fire and the current building was finished in 1709.
The Great South Gate was constructed at the end of the 12th century:
We returned to our hotel in time to rest and prepare for dinner. Jeff found a “Gyoza” restaurant nearby so we shared Chinese ‘pot stickers’ for dinner. Yum!
