Nara was Japan’s first permanent capital (710). One thing that surprised us in driving there was that what seemed to us to be obscure back roads turned out to be the main roads in a country well served by rail. There also seem to be very few direct routes in a very mountainous terrain.
Nara has a large population of wild deer in the city, especially in Nara Park which has over one thousand. They are protected as National Treasures and are traditionally sacred messengers of the gods. In the 8th century, accidentally killing one was punishable by death. They can get rather aggressive if you don’t just hand over the food!
Todai-ji temple houses what we understand to be the world’s largest bronze Buddha. If you can crawl through a hole in one of the temple’s pillars the size of Buddha’s nostril, you will achieve an experience of enlightenment. As you can see, three of us decided the effort was worthwhile.
The beauty of the landscape seemed to capture the essence of Japanese Buddhism with a Shinto shrine never far away or out of mind.