Nara-koen (Part 1)

I spent my first day in Nara-koen which is a huge park on the east side of Nara. It contains a variety of shrines, temples, gardens, museums and enough wandering deer to put Miyajima to shame. The thing that I found a little strange is that the deer aren't fenced in at all. The ones in Miyajima are stuck on an island, so they can't really interfere with the city at all, but in Nara, there's nothing stopping them from running across roads or heading into the main part of the city.

In various places around the park are vendors selling deer biscuits that you can feed to the deer. I didn't buy any, but it was amusing to watch a little kid get a bunch, and then run screaming while 20 deer stormed after him.


Once in the park I headed for the northern part, which contains a lot of the most famous places in Nara. First I passed through the Nandaimon gate, which contains two amazing demon guardian statues made out of wood.

I continued through the gate to Todai-ji Daibutsu-den (Hall of the Great Buddha). The hall/temple itself is the largest wooden building in the world.

Contained inside are a variet of Buddha statues. The one shown here is one of the smaller ones flanking the Great Buddha.

(more coming...)