Nara

As we were on the Nara JR train line we decided to continue to Nara which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 when the framework of national government was consolidated. At the station we bought an all travel day pass for only 500 JPY (about $7) to use the terrific system of buses which efficiently takes thousands of visitors around the various sites. There are numerous historic monuments including Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and the excavated remains of the Imperial Palace. 

Our first stop was the Kohfukuji Buddhist Temple in Nara Park. We immediately saw the deer that roam the park in their hundreds. They are tame and are fed "deer biscuits" by visitors (at a cost of 150 JPY) but apparently they can be aggressive, which probably explains why their horns had been removed. Some deer have learned to bow to visitors to ask to be fed. One unsuccessfully tried to have a taste of Anita's coffee. They have been in the park for centuries and are protected as they are considered in Shinto to be messengers of the gods. 

There is a five story wooden pagoda that is 50 metres tall. It was first built in 730, and was rebuilt in 1426. The timbers are fastened together with hardly any nails by inserting carved thinner and narrower ends of beams into slots. There are about a thousand large mortise joints in a five-story pagoda - that's a lot of carpentry!

The most outstanding place we saw today was the Buddhist Todaiji Temple. The Great Buddha Hall houses the world's largest gilded bronze statue of the Buddha at an impressive height of 15 metres. The temple is also the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism.