Museum Hopper

The Kasuga Taisha shrine was our last stop before lunch (and my ankles gave out)!  This is actually a familial shrine of a wealthy family.  This shrine is famous for the number of lanterns, both stone and metal ones.   Their large ceremonies involve lighting up all the lanterns.  They gave us an idea of what it looks like with a dark room and a few lit lanterns with a wall of mirrors.  This photo isn't great, but it is the best we could do!    Just a beautiful shrine with great descriptions! Time in shrine: 1 hr Times visited: 1 Overall: A-

Jason and I did not spend much time in the  Nigatsu-do Shrine, but it sure did have a beautiful view!  It is somewhat on the edge of the hill with views of Nara Park and some of the other shrines and temples I have highlighted in this blog. It was not for the faint of heart though (or those requiring flat grounds) as it was one that had more than its fair share of steps, but I was prepared.  The stairs were beautiful with all the prayer stones lining it. The lanterns were beautiful at the top as well Most of our visit was devoted to the view.  As this was relatively adjacent to the other shrines we wanted to see, this was a great stop. Time in shrine: 30 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B+

We quickly moved on to Todai-ji Temple , which is also part of the UNESCO world heritage site and another one of the The scale of this temple was something.   Here is a picture of the main gate: I will just say, the main temple is HUGE.  It is also very distinctive with the golden horns on the top.  I have made this picture bigger than usual, so you can see that the little dots are actually people.  We read that this is the largest wooden structure in the world and the world's largest gilded Buddha.  At one point there were additional buildings on the left and right side that got destroyed making the building even larger! They did actually let us take pictures inside the shrine, which was relatively rare. Picture for scale!  These are the size of the petals at the bottom of the statue You might wonder what this picture is for.  Belief is that if you can fit through this hole in this pillar, you will have luck for life...

On our visit to Nara, this was the first place we stopped, the Kofuku-ji Temple .  The temple is part of the UNESCO heritage site of ancient Nara.   It is also one of the seven great temples in Nara.  This temple is directly on the way to the main park grounds in Nara. The temple is beautiful.  Unfortunately the main building was under construction, but we could still see the pagoda.   We did not go inside this shrine, but we did walk around the grounds.   We wish we could have spent more time at this shrine than we did.  It seemed like it had some beautiful buildings and artifacts. Time in temple: 30 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B+