Japan, Day 12 (Part II)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

So I thought that the Buddha in Kamakura was big but I was wrong. After leaving Himeji castle, we rushed back onto the train and headed over to Nara, which is the home of Todai-ji, home of I believe the largest Buddha in all of Japan. The building itself measures 188 feet on the front and rear, 166 feet on the sidewalls, and 157 feet top to bottom.

As we walked (and sort of ran), we passed a ton of deer. So many that it was actually kind of scary because you don't want them to get too close to you but it's hard to pay attention when you're trying to run and dodge all of their crap, too. Plus, there are street vendors everywhere, but they aren't selling food for the people to buy, they are selling food for the deer! I know, the deer are sacred, but they are getting a bit out of control.

I don't really recommend doing both Himeji and Todai-ji in the same day, we had to run to the gate to be let in on time. Fortunately, we made it. Here is the wood building that holds the Buddha.

And the Buddha itself, created out of bronze. The photo doesn't really do it's size justice. It stands at 14.98 meters...It's face alone is 5.33 meters, so you can kind of get an idea as to how gigantic it is. I can't even comprehend the weight--500 metric tonnes.

This is one of the two smaller bronze statues that are on either side of the giant Buddha. By smaller I mean maybe 8 meters high.

This guy is a guard who stands behind and to the right of the Buddha to protect him.

We then left and tried to find this 5 tiered pagoda. We got lost, it kind of sucked. We kept walking in the wrong direction through this really creepy forest. I was really scared that we were going to get attacked by a rabid deer but it never ended up happening. When we finally figured out which way that we were going, we walked by a lady who was selling baked yams from a tiny little cart. I was starving, so it really hit the spot. It was so simple, just a yam, baked until soft, served in a paper bag.

Finally, we got to the pagoda. In person it's really impressive.

This is a temple that is next to the pagoda.

Lots of places were closed at this point, so we didn't explore it. Plus, I was starving. Margaret had told us that we should go out for Shabu-Shabu (meat cooked in hot oil at the table), so we tried to find a place that served that. It's hard to find stuff like that when you can't read any of the signs, but one place had a sign in English. Plus, they had some good looking fake food in the window.

The place was set up so that the table we sat at had a huge, hot grill in the middle. We both ordered beef with vegetables. The food came to our table partially cooked, and then it got finished off on our table grill. We got thinly sliced beef with cabbage, Japanese sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. It was a perfect meal. In fact, ever since eating there I've been praying that I'll run into a place in the U.S. with something similar.

The perfect last dinner in Japan...