Parent Visit Part III: Nara and Himeji

NARA

After Kyoto, we took a trip to Nara.  Nara is the first permanent capital of the Japanese nation.  Before it was chosen as the capital in the 600s AD, Japanese tradition was to change the capital every time an emperor died.  However, in the 600s, a new clan came into power that was more open to Buddhism and Chinese influence, and therefore they adjusted this custom.  During the time that Nara was the capital, the emperor gave a lot of support to Buddhists and many shrines and temples were built.  Several of the buildings from that time are still around and are now UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites, including the oldest wooden building on earth as well as the biggest all-wooden building.  

It was a great city to walk around.  It was made even more atmospheric because of the deer that are all over the city.  According to the local lore, when this one famous temple was built and dedicated, the family that built the temple invited one of the temple deities from northern Japan to come visit.  The deity came riding on the back of a deer.  Since that time, the local people viewed deer as a messenger of the gods and therefore did not hunt them.  

Okay, so here are the pics.

Kofuku-ji hexagonal shrine.

Deer!

Todai-ji: the world's largest all wooden building.

Kasuga Grand Shrine:  The walking path to this shrine is lined with around 2,000 stone lanterns.

  

While in Nara, we stayed at a fantastic guest house.  The house was over 100 years old and built in traditional Japanese style.  We loved it!  And the woman who owned and operated the house was incredible.  She made us an excellent breakfast and gave us all sorts of tips for seeing the area.  Just staying at the house itself was a wonderful cultural experience.

HIMEJI

As a child, I used to fantasize about ninjas, samurais, and ninja castles.  What boy hasn't?  So I was especially giddy to visit Himeji castle.

Over the centuries, the Japanese built dozens of castle fortresses.  Most of these were damaged and burned down during World War II.  Since then, several of the most prominent were rebuilt, such as Osaka and Nagoya castle.  However, only 3 castles survived the war and have been preserved.  Of these 3, Himeji is the biggest and most impressive.  

The castle was built in 1603 AD (or right around then), which was the very end of the warring period in Japanese history.  So it was built with the most modern military technology and designs at the time.  The outside was plastered in a special white coating that was anti-inflammatory along the walls and roof, which gives it a very majestic look.  Because of its special white coating, the castle is often referred to as the White Heron.  

While there, we took tons of pictures, but despite my best efforts, I could not capture the impressiveness of the castle grounds.  The grounds were massive.  And to reach the castle proper, the inner most towers, one had to wander in a zig zag pattern throughout the grounds.  Obviously, this was a deliberate defensive measure.

Okay, enough talk.  On to the pictures.