The rest of my vacation

We left for Kyoto on the 2nd, and then went to Nara on the 3rd. Nara is a really old city like Kyoto with lots of nature and shrines and temples everywhere. The funny thing about Nara is that deer there are sacred and protected and allowed to roam around the whole city as they please. I guess the story is that first emperor of Japan, Jimmu, descended from heaven, and rode a deer. So in turn, the deer of Nara are supposed to be the descendents of Jimmu's deer and thus are to be protected. Here's a picture of one deer hanging out on the sidewalk, waiting for someone to give him some food.

In Nara, we went to Todaiji temple. This place was really neat and the temple building itself is the largest wooden building in the world. Inside is the largest Buddha statue in Japan too.


There were these big pillars inside the temple, and one of them had a hole in the bottom of it. The story is that if you crawl through the hole at the bottom of this pillar, you will reach enlightenment. So there was a long, long line of kids whose parents were making them crawl through the hole. Here's a picture.

Then we walked all around the park in Nara. Here's a picture of some moss covered lanterns on the way to another temple.

The next day I had to come back to Nagoya to work on the 5th. It was an awesome trip though. We definitely saw and did all we could in those eight days. I guess I won't have another real holiday until Golden Week in May. Ugh, what a bummer.
Oh well, it was a wonderful time. Having my friends here was great and I miss them already. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year's! See you later.