Nara -- (Also, Kyoto)

Before relocating to Kyoto, Nara was Japan's capital city from 710-784 AD.  The city was heavily influenced by Buddhism and currently houses the largest number of National Treasures in Japan.  Seeing as it was only a 40 minute trip from Kyoto, Caroline and I decided to spend a day in the old capital.

We did make one final stop in Kyoto at Fushimi Inari Shrine.  The shrine was built in honor of Inari, the Japanese fox goddess, (it's said that the fox spirits are able to posses people by slipping in through their fingernails).  The path leading to the hilltop is lined with hundreds of red torii, (shinto gates).  I removed all of my finger nails before we entered the shrine so I remain unpossessed.   

Onward to Nara.  Our first stop was Todai-ji.  The main attraction at Todai is Diabutsu, the largest Buddha statue in Japan and one of the largest in the world. Diabutsu spends all of his time inside of Daibutsu-den, the largest wooden building in the world.

Just outside of of the Diabutsu-den sits Yakushi Nyorai, Buddha of medicine and healing. You're encouraged to touch the statue and then touch that same part of your own body in order to heal your ailments.  I'm in perfect working order though, so I skipped this part.

Nara is also home to a large number of "wild" deer.  By home I really mean it was like having a petting zoo follow you around everywhere.  These animals looked gross and mangy and they smelled horrible.  This didn't stop people from petting them, feeding them, playing with them, taking pictures with them, etc.  I was horrified because back home in the great state of Pennsylvania it's pretty common knowledge that deer are full of parasites, (like ticks that carry lyme disease), and I'd never think about letting one hang out next to my ice cream stand:

Anyway, except for mutant rat-deer, Nara was well worth the day trip from Kyoto. We spent the rest of our day walking through Nara Park and stumbling into a few other temples, shrines, and gardens.  

Our vacation had now reached it's halfway point.  Caroline wasn't ready to leave Kyoto, so she ran away and tried to hide.

Ride Kyoto, Ride

While Kyoto's bus system will get you to and from all of the popular attractions, I'd recommend renting a bike and seeing the city like the locals do.  Kyoto is famous for it's cycling culture*. Almost everyone had a bike and almost every sidewalk had a bike lane.  If the sidewalks were busy it was easy to ride in the street, as motorists treated cyclists with an unprecedented, (at least by my experiences in the states), level of respect.

*It's the major form of transport.  I'd caution any visitor to look both ways before exiting onto a sidewalk.

The best part about deciding to ride through Kyoto was the amount of ground we were able to cover, allotting us even more time to explore the city, (Kyoto's streets are based on the grid system, making navigation extremely simple). This was especially critical because we only planned 2.5 days in Kyoto and the main attractions are mostly scattered along the outskirts of the city center.  

We grabbed a map, packed some food, and were on our way.  Here are some of the highlights:

To-ji Temple -- Home to the largest wooden pagoda in Japan.

Heian Shrine -- A scaled down replica of the original Imperial Palace, home to the most beautiful garden in Kyoto, and the last of my "Lost in Translation Destinations". 

Nanzenji Temple -- Where do I even begin?  Tucked away in the eastern hills this temple was a hidden gem.  First of all, the complex was huge...

...with a trail that snaked up into the mountains where there was an assortment of statues, small pagodas, and even a small cave full of candles and incense.  

The second story of the main gate afforded some nice views of the city sprawl as well as some of the surrounding gardens, (which would have cost extra to enter).  

But my favorite part was the old aqueduct...

...which appeared to be in working order...

...and doubled as a foot path.

Ginkakuji -- The Silver Pavilion that isn't very silver.  It was mid-afternoon by the time we made it here so unlike our first three stops, this place was jam packed full of people.

Kinkaku-ji Temple -- Temple of the Golden Pavilion, (which is actually golden unlike it's "silver" counterpart).  This was originally built as a retirement villa for the Shogun in the late 14th century.  Legend* has it that the entire temple is actually made out of chocolate but only the Shogun, (who is dead), has the power to remove the golden foil wrapper.

*no such legend exists

The Golden Pavilion was a mob scene, full of tourists and school children.  We forgot to set our alarms that morning, so we had a late start, and the ride was a little bit further than we anticipated.

And finally, the most integral part of these two days:

      

thanks guys

Kyoto -- The First Day

Home to 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and more than 2000 religious and cultural artifacts, (1600 temples, 400 shrines, countless gardens, narrow alleys, streets lined with paper lanterns, hidden tea houses, etc.), Kyoto is the epicenter of Japanese culture and should be at the very top of any traveller's itinerary.

Our first destination was Adashino Nenbutsu-ji, a temple located in the foothills on the western outskirts of the city.  Inside of the temple grounds stand approximately 8000 stone-carved Buddhas, each marking the grave of an unknown or forgotten person.

  Most of the stones were being swallowed by moss...

...but some of the carvings still looked pristine.

I could have spent hours inspecting each of the rock carvings, but unfortunately we had only 30 minutes before the grounds would close.  

(I should also mention that we were handed pamphlets at the front gate.  We didn't bother to look at the pamphlets until we were back at the bus stop, and that's when we learned that photography was forbidden).  

Feeling rather bad about ourselves, we headed to Gion, (the famed geisha district), in search of our hostel.

geisha statue

geisha street

geisha house

geisha stroll

It's quite (definitely) possible that none of these captions* accurately describe the contents of the photographs, but it's fun to pretend.

*Except for the statue. That's actually a real statue.

Out On the Weekend

We've been in Daegu for 3 weeks now but sometimes it feels more like 3 days.  The work week passes by so quickly that we hardly have (make) the time to plan out our weekends.  Luckily the city has plenty to offer and the public transit system makes it easy to wake up on Saturday morning and find an adventure.

Our first outing was a walk through Duryu Park.  The park is gigantic and beautiful.  As soon as you enter you forget about the massive city that lies beyond the trees.  The only maps we could find were in Korean so we decided to wander around and hope for the best.  Here is a glimpse at what we found.

Keumyong-sa

View from the front porch swing

After checking out the temple grounds we continued down the trail until we came to a large pond where people were feeding a massive school of fish.  These fish were terribly ugly and extremely desperate for potato chip crumbs and other scraps of food.

We were feeding these pathetic saps from a footbridge that connected to a tiny island which seemed to house another small temple, but the gate was locked so I snapped a quick photo and then we went to find some food.

Hidden Temple

Duryu Park was a nice time and we've already set our sights on going back.  A teacher at my school gave us some info regarding a small mountain that people climb in the center of the park.  When you reach the top you'll find a small restaurant serving chicken and beer.  Sounds pretty nice.

Speaking of mountains our second outing took us to the top of Mt Apsan.  The hike was only about two miles but here in Korea, hiking trails seem to go straight up.  It wasn't until we had almost reached the top that the trail began to meander nice and slowly around the mountain's edge.  It was hot and we were hungry, (which seems to be becoming a common theme among this blog), but the view quickly struck this from our minds.

Daegu Tower

Duryu Park

Daegu.  Every inch of it.