Kyoto – Day 2

We began our second day in Kyoto by traveling to the town of Nara which was the capital of Japan in the 8th century.  We visited the Todaiji Temple which is the world’s largest wooden building – I think I posted yesterday that the building then was the world’s largest.  Maybe that one is by length and this one by volume (?).  It is surrounded by a large deer park and the deer come begging for food and bow when you give them some.  One of the men in our group had a deer try to eat his package of gifts looking for food.  Inside the building is an enormous Buddha statue, the Daibutsu Buddha – 87 feet tall and made of bronze covered in gold weighing 550 tons.  It was made in 752 AD at a current cost of 4 billion dollars.  When a Buddhas right hand is raised it means “fear not” and when his left hand is raised it mean “I will grant your prayers”.  There were other beautiful statues in the Temple as well.


We had some free time to walk around the grounds before going to Japan’s most celebrated shrine, the Kasuga-Takisha.  This Shrine dates back to the 1st century, and traditionally has been torn down and rebuilt every 20 years because it is made of wood.  This happened until 1863.  The shrine is set in a beautiful forest, but the main draw is the 1,000’s of stone lanterns that line all the paths.  

We returned to Kyoto for lunch at the Fortune Garden Restaurant, with some Japanese food and some American food too.

In the afternoon we went to the Nijo Castle, a remnant from the feudal era.  It was built in 1603 by the Edo period’s first Shogun as his residence.  It was later used as an Imperial Palace after the fall of the Shogunate.  The building was huge, built in a zig zag design.  The floors when you first entered were nightingale one, they chirped as you walked on them.  That was part of the defense system in place.  There were beautiful paintings on the wall and intricate bronze decorations on the doors and lintels to each room.

There were also beautiful gardens around the castle.  It was never used as a fort but only as a residence for the Shogun.  He could only have one wife but as many concubines as he wanted.

We had dinner at the Kaiseki Mizuki restaurant in the hotel for a top of the line dinner.  Many courses again.  Bob had sushi and sashimi for the first time!

Big bags were out by 9:15 and we were sleeping by 9:17!

Fitbit – 9847 steps, 9 floors, 4.66 miles