Iddya & Orlando's Excellent Adventure

Kyoto

This week Japan celebrates Obon and as a result Orlando has the whole week off. We decided to go to Kyoto in the Kinki region (seriously thatÂ’s what itÂ’s called) of the country. Kyoto was JapanÂ’s capital from 794 to 1868 (http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/1200.html) and as a result itÂ’s filled with temples (Buddhist religion) and shrines (Shinto religion) of great historical importance. Orlando and I covered a lot of ground in 3 days but Kyoto is so big that it would truly take more than a week to see all the attractions in detail. I decided to separate our trip according to what we did that day. I will include some details of the places we visited and some links to more information if you want to go into detail, which may be of interest if you are planning to visit us. ;-) Most of the temples and shrines did not allow photographs to be taken inside the building. As a result most of the pictures we have are of us in the main gate or on the gardens in the back (there is always a garden) of the structures, yet another reason why to come and visit.

First Day

1. Higashi Honganji Temple
o http://www.bombu.org/HigashiJapan.html
o This is the first temple we visited manly because it was the closest to the train station. You could literary walk around Kyoto and suddenly bump into some type of historical attraction. This is Orlando in the red hat in the "very small" front gate.

Here I am in the fountain in front of the temple. All Buddhistdist temples had a water fountain at the entrance in order for people to drink and purify their souls before entering.

2. Nara - This was the first capital of Japan. It's about 1 hour bus ride from Kyoto.
A. Todaji Temple
o http://www.jgc.co.jp/waza/a1_nara/index.htm
o Here we got to see the Virocana Buddha. It is one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world (the biggest one is in China - I asked the tour guide). The statues is almost 50 feet high and it's head is almost 20 feetlengthnght!!!

Here I am in the front of the huge temple. Tosincerecire I never thought I would be in a picture like this, but that's life you never know where your going to end up!!!

B. Nara Park
o http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4103.html
o This park was just in front of the Tadai-Ji Temple.
It had lots of free roaming deer all over (not like I have already seen enough deer in Michigan). There was this little kid playing with a plastic samurai sword. Cute right??

Not really once he started hitting the poor dear with his sword. Now the bad part this that it was happening right in the middle of me trying to take these pictures. Suddenly the dear started running toward me without any warning and almost ran me over. My quick reflexes saved me from the run away deer. After the drama of taking these pictures I thought it was only right for me to share them with all of you.

C. Kasuga Shrine
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasuga_Shrine
o Here is a picture of the shrine's entrance (remember that there are now pictures allowed inside).

One interesting that happened to us there was that one of the Shinto priests c(on the left side of the picture with the big puffy thing in his hand) ame out of his house and blessed a new car in order to protect it from evil.