Nara - home of stone lanterns in Japan

The five storey pagoda in Nara is the second tallest in Japan at just over 50m.
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After spending our first night at the Kansai airport hotel, we went to the Kansai JR (Japan Rail) station to convert our voucher to a 7 day Rail Pass. We also bought a Kansai Day Pass for 2000 yen which allows unlimited travel on Haruka limited express and ordinary trains in the Osaka-Kyoto-Nara-Kobe area. It is only available to tourists and you must show your passport (visa) and return ticket to get this pass.

We caught the Haruka train to Kyoto and left our bags at our Ryokan before catching another train 50 minutes to Nara. In Japan all the railway stations have their name in both Japanese and English and many trains also have announcements in English. It makes travel by train very easy.

The deer know how to line up to get biscuits.
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Nara was Japan's first capital and has an amazing collection of world heritage sites, most of which are located in the Nara Koen (Park) a huge park right within the modern city and about 5-10 minutes walk from the JR station.

The first thing you notice about this park is that it is full of deer and people selling biscuits to feed to the deer! The deer (and there are lots of them) have become accustomed to being fed and patted and so can be insistent. Luckily they are regarded as sacred and are therefore protected.

Todaiji is the largest wooden building in the world.
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The first place we visited was Kofukuji originally a large temple complex from the 8th century of which only a couple of amazing buildings remain. They include the 50m high Five Storey Pagoda which is one of the symbols of Nara and apparently the second highest in Japan. It is incredible to look at how the wooden structure was constructed. Originally built in 725 it was rebuilt in 1426. The 3 storey Pagoda nearby was last constructed in 1143. Near the 5 storey Pagoda was a large hall also constructed of timber. (see more photos)

The typical dragon water spout at the Shrine.
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Our second stop was Todaiji which was built in 752 as the head temple of all Buddhist temples in Japan. Naturally enough, it has been rebuilt many times since then, and the one we saw was built in 1709. However, it is still the largest wooden building in the world. Think about that! Todaiji is famous for housing Japan's largest Buddha. There were hundreds of school children at Todaiji.

From here we walked through to Kasuga Taisha a Shinto shrine. It is one of the most famous in Japan. Again, it has been rebuilt many times, this one in 1863.

Stack of sake barrels.
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The walk through Kasuga Primeval Forest to the shrine must be beautiful in autumn, or in spring when the wisteria is fully in flower. (see more photos) Only a few people bothered to walk to this shrine but I thought it was very beautiful and peaceful. The pathway to the shrine is lined with stone lanterns, of all sizes and shapes and ages. In February they have a festival where all the lanterns are lit (must take a lot of monks to perform this task). They also have a large collection of bronze lanterns.

Some of the 3,000 stone lanterns in Nara
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The front gate to the shrine had a giant rack of sake barrels. I guess the gods love sake! Outside each of the shrines was a fountain where you washed your hands, most had a dragon figure, but here there was a giant stag.

We walked back to the station through the Park grounds and caught a train back to Kyoto, our home for the next couple of days.