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There’s not much more to be said about Nara - the primary attraction is obviously Todaiji and its daibutsu. There is also a very large five-storied pagoda in the temple complex of Kofuku-ji with a peaceful little pond behind it:

And, of course, no trip to Nara would be complete without feeding the free-roaming deer in Nara’s public park:

Unfortunately, exactly as the guidebook predicted, we saw several western tourists munching on the deer biscuits as they walked around Nara.

The trip from Nara to Kyoto was the shortest of our trip - less than an hour on the local train. As we stepped off the train, we were greeted by our first real taste of how crowded Japan can be. The station was one of the bigger and busier train stations I’ve ever been to, and I’m sure that Golden Week didn’t help. Moreover, the modern design of the train station and the ugly Kyoto hotel tower across the street immediately took away any lingering thoughts that Kyoto would be that picture-perfect, traditional Japan that is shown nostalgically in television or movies :

As we walked through the station, I was reminded of the first time I walked into the gigantic and similarly modern train station in Rome with its large shopping mall, finding it hard to believe that it was the central hub of the city that was home to much of western culture. Kyoto, the largest remaining bastion of Japanese culture, seemed decidedly uncultured.

Of course, Kyoto maintains its importance in Japan for a reason, and after checking into our hotel, we quickly found out why. Although they are scattered around the city, some of the most impressive, famous, and historically significant temples in Japan are located in Kyoto. After checking into our hotel, we decided to head to two of the most famous first, hoping to escape the crowds after visiting them.

Our first stop was Sanjusangendo, home to 1001 images of the 1000 armed Kannon (Sk. Avalokite?vara). These 1001 statues and the 28 guardian myoo, ten, ashura and other deities are located within 33 separate sections of the temple, hence the name Sanjusangendo, or “33 Bay Hall.” This number 33 is a sacred number in Buddhism, and represents the number of forms Kannon can appear in to teach the path to enlightenment. We weren’t allowed to take pictures and they would’ve have included lots of people’s heads anyways, so here are some pictures that I retrieved from this website:

The rows and rows of statues were really impressive and illustrate well the developing importance of Kannon and his pure land during the medieval period in which these images were made.

Next on the list was Kiyomizu-dera, definitely on the list of the top-three most famous temples in Japan. Unfortunately for us, this meant that the temple was literally overflowing with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get a chance to pray at the altar or drink the sacred water from the waterfall. I still got some nice pictures, however, as it’s a pretty large complex:

We waited in line nearly 20 minutes to get a drink from one of the three sacred water spouts you can see above and for which the temple gets its name. It was cold and tasted good, but I’m not sure it granted the health, longevity or success that is promised.

Because of the large crowds both in the temples and on the buses to and from the temples, we spent nearly 4 hours just seeing these two temples. We decided to have a look at the traditionally maintained streets of Gion, hoping to see a geisha or maiko (geisha’s apprentice), and then head back towards the station for some food. Unfortunately we saw no geisha but the streets were very beautiful:

By the time we finally made it home, we were exhausted and decided to call it a night so that we could wake up early and start again the next day. I’ll finish with Kyoto and this trip in the next post.

The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 so that we could attend Kumagaiji’s Buddhist ceremony at 6:30. It was an interesting experience - as we entered we were given some incense to rub on our hands and a shawl reading “Koyasan” to wear around our necks. Then, we took seats among the other people who had stayed the night at the temple, several of them still wearing their pajamas. The ceremony began with chanting and a series of ritual motions in front of the altar, conducted by the head priest. At the very center of the altar was a miniature version of Konpon Daito, a two-storied pagoda in Koyasan that we would see later that morning. It is considered the center of the lotus flower created by the eight mountains surrounding Koyasan and is thus the sacred center of Shingon’s most sacred site:

The second part of the ceremony was a sermon, given in Japanese of course, by the head priest. While I certainly didn’t understand complexities of the sermon, I do know that he discussed religious beliefs all over the world, religion in Japan (or its supposed lack there-of), and the failure of some major temples in Japan in fulfilling their social purpose. He seemed particularly unhappy with Tokyo’s Sensoji. Of course, he finished with a sales pitch for Shingon including recommending a video on Kukai’s life. After the sermon, we stood in the footprints of the Buddha and walked around the altar before returning to our rooms where we were served breakfast of miso soup and rice.

After saying goodbye to our hosts at Kumagaiji (and paying them the $100 per person they charged for hosting us) we headed out to do some final sightseeing in Koyasan. Notable sights included Konpon Daito (shown above) and Kongobuji (Shingon’s main temple) which had several beautiful gardens:

After stopping by the Tokugawa memorial where both Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Hidetada are enshrined, we got back on the cablecar down the mountain and headed for Nara:

Nara is about 50 km away from Koyasan, but because of the windy mountain tracks and frequent stops, the trip took nearly three hours. After arriving in Nara, we immediately joined the crowds and headed to Todaiji, the largest wooden building in the world, and home to Nara’s daibutsu - the largest Buddha statue in Japan. The statue represents Dainichi Nyorai (Sk. Vairocana), the eternal manifestation of Gautama Buddha in the Lotus Sutra and the incarnation of the dharmakaya. It was impressive, to say the least, but the throngs of Golden Week tourists took away some of the atmosphere that must usually exist in Todaiji. Todaiji and the daibutsu:

At the back of Todaiji is a large pillar with a hole through it, which is said to be exactly the same size as one of the daibutsu’s nostrils. On a less busy day, anyone might be seen squeezing through the hole, as climbing through it guarantees enlightenment. However, since it was Golden Week only children were climbing through it and the line was ridiculously long: