You think you can squeeze through that nostril?

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We headed out from Kyoto for the day to explore Nara.  I've heard from several people that this is a great town and it was a pleasant way to spend the day.  Nara has some very famous temples and shrines, but unfortunately we were a little temple-and-shrined out.  We did make sure to hit the big ones though.

The most famous temple in Nara is Todai-ji which is supposedly the largest wooden structure in the world.  It houses a massive buddha, which is massive despite being only a third of the size of the original.

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The real fun though is in a wooden post behind the giant buddha.  At the bottom of the post is a hole meant to represent the size of the nostril of the giant buddha.  It is said that if you squeeze through the whole you are guaranteed enlightenment.  The hole is not large and it certainly didn't seem like I would fit but what the hell, right?  Plus, Nick slithered through like it was greased in butter so I had to give it a shot.  The hole is about 3 feet long and it was rough going in the middle but I managed to get all the way through (hopefully without flashing anyone since I was wearing a skirt.)  There should be photos somewhere and I'm sure they are entertaining.  We actually hung around for a while cheering people through the hole since it was so entertaining.

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Nara is also full of tame deer.  They are about 2/3 of the size of the deer back home but they do have antlers.   Deer are definitely cooler when seen from a distance than when they are poking you in the butt with their antlers so you will feed them.  It's a bit surreal to be walking around and stopping to pet the deer as if they were dogs.

So Nara was not an overly exciting day but still lovely and a recommended day trip from Kyoto.  Really, we had just had enough of temples and shrines and were ready to try something new.   In this frame of mind we headed off from our adventures on Shikoku.