Today's blog has been kindly provided to us by a UK based blogger and frequent visitor to Japan, Oscar.
Oscar runs a really cool website Japantoptobottom on which he posts a Japan related picture every single day. At just 12 years of age, its easy to see he has a great future ahead of him.
Please come and visit Nara again soon Oscar!
My Adventures in Nara
By Oscar, age 12
My family went to Nara in the spring. We stayed for five days because my mum had been to Nara before and she realised that there is far too much to do in Nara for just a day trip!
The first special thing that we noticed was the deer. There are LOTS of deer in Nara. There are deer that interact with tourists near the temples and beg for special rice cakes for deer called ‘shika senbei’, and then there are shy ones that live normal deer lives on the hillsides. When we went to Todaiji Temple we met hundreds of deer. We bought some shika senbei and fed them. It is quite dangerous to tease the deer with the shika senbei, because if you don’t give them quickly the deer might head-butt you and leap at you to try to get them. I saw a man posing for a photo with a shika senbei in his hand and a deer next to him, and the deer got impatient and pushed him over a low fence. Fortunately he was OK, and it was quite funny.
There are lots of beautiful temples and shrines in Nara. We loved the 5-story pagoda at Kofukuji Temple (it’s one of the tallest in Japan) and the 12 life-size scary sculptures of the heavenly kings at ancient Shin-Yakushiji Temple (it’s 1200 years old!). The hundreds and hundreds of stone and metal lanterns at Kasuga Shrine are really impressive. They are all lighted up only twice a year, but I’d like to see that someday!
But the most impressive temple of all is Todaiji. The big Buddha hall is the biggest wooden building in the whole world and it’s HUGE. But it used to be even bigger before it was rebuilt in the 17th century , which is almost unbelievable! Inside you can see the great Buddha who is 15 metres high and weighs more than 200 tons! The Buddha is really impressive, but something even better is just nearby. There’s a pillar on the right of the Great Buddha that has a hole through the bottom of it. This hole is exactly the same size as one of the Great Buddha’s nostrils. It is said that if you manage to crawl or squeeze through it you will receive many blessings and even achieve enlightenment in your next life!
I heard about this ‘nostril hole’ and it sounded fun but I thought that it would probably be closed off and impossible to test. So my brother and I were really happy to find that anyone can have a go. The inside of the hole is all smooth and shiny from all the people who have squeezed through it over the centuries. I went through lots of times and so did my brother. It was great fun and I hope I got a lot of blessings too. I feel sorry for adults though as most of them are a bit too big to try it. My mum and dad didn’t dare because they thought they might get stuck!
We did lots of other things in Nara, from visiting the site of Japan’s ancient capital, Heijo-kyo, and its big reconstructed city gate, to seeing the Omizutori fire festival at one of Todaiji Temple’s halls up on the hill. The festival was really amazing but also really mad! This is a really ancient and valuable building made completely of wood, and the monks run around the wooden balcony with great flaming torches. We kept thinking that everything would go up in flames. But of course it didn’t.
(You can read more about Omizutori here)
We also did karaoke in Nara, visited the really cool photography museum (Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography) and ate at a conveyor belt sushi shop (my favourite!). We also tried oden which is things like hard boiled eggs and tofu and fishcakes cooked in a kind of soup. My parents thought it was great, but my brother and I weren’t so sure. Maybe it helps to eat it with beer like they did! My brother and I ate delicious cherry blossom ice cream and bought lots of drinks from vending machines. My favourites are Calpis and Hot Cocoa.
Nara was lots of fun. There are many big open spaces and places to see, so it’s good for people who like walking and seeing interesting things. There’s a lot of history to learn about too. I’d like to go again, maybe in the summer this time!
Once again, a big thank you to Oscar for sharing his Nara adventure with us. Be sure to follow him at www.japantoptobottom.com