Nara-koen (Part 2)

The main attraction of course was the Great Buddha himself. Over 16m tall and made of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold, it truely is massive.

On my way out I gave in and bought a t-shirt describing part of the Kegon sutra. Next I went to Sangatsu-do/Hokke-do. It is the oldest building in the complex, dating back to somewhere around 740 AD. It contains a group of 16 different statues, made around the same time, ranging from the angry warrior statues Shukongo-jin and Kongo-rikishi, to the serene Gakko-bosatsu and the central figure of Fukukensaku-kannon-bosatsu. No pictures allowed in this building, but if you're curious, a few of the statues can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/38462124 and http://www.taleofgenji.org/todaiji_hokkedo.html. Next I visited the Kasuga Taisha Shrine Botanical Garden. It supposedly displays the plants described in the poems of Man-yo-shu. It has sections devoted to showing different crops, fruit trees, field plants and of course trees and flowers. It wasn't too spectacular, but certainly an interesting walk.

I was starting to get a bit tired after all this, so I decided to check out a small museum where I could slow down for a bit. The Kasuga Shrine Treasure Hall is a shrine museum that mainly contains swords and armor from the Nara Period (646-794 AD). After this, I made my way to a group of large ponds in the south part of the park, and sat in the Ukimido Hall to relax for a bit.

This is about when it started to rain. I was feeling about done for the day anyway, so I headed out of the park. On my way home I took a quick stop at the Kofukuji Temple to take a peek at the 5-storied pagoda (notice the rain).

It was still a bit too early to return to the hotel, so I wandered down the covered shopping arcade road in Nara. I stopped at a restaurant and had a plate of some of very good spaghetti, and topped it off with an elaborate ice cream. There was an ice cream on the menu that costs around $25 CDN, and is a culinary masterpiece, but I could neither afford that, or manage to finish it, so I went with a much more conservative, but still very artistic looking one. I then made my way home for a much deserved rest. Tomorrow I'm going to explore the southern area of the city, which has a bunch of temples, and probably check out a few more gardens. Hopefully the rain has cleared up by then.