Well... I'm going to say this first. Today, I was bitten on the bum by a deer. There we go. Now I can start from the beginning.
We started the day a little later than was planned but we knew that the trains to Uji and Nara were local and frequent anyway. When I said villages yesterday... I meant more small industrial towns really, Kyoto has a kinda of urban sprawl which seems to extend most of the way south to these places. Nara was, at one point, the capital of the country for a short number of years, and has always been closely linked to the Kyoto seat of power.
The main attractions in the town are the pagodas and the temple, reportedly the largest wooden structure on the planet, holding a giant brass Buddha. These are a reasonable walk from the train station and as you reach the larger of the two pagodas (5 stories rather than 3) you first meet the wild deer that roam the parks around this end of town. When I say wild... they are very used to humans as they live in a tourist attraction, but there are signs up saying to be careful as they do bite, kick, charge and butt.
On the way through an area of park we passed a man selling "deer cookies". These appear to be disc shaped rice cakes, or something similar. Unbeknownst to me, the deer in the area know very well what it means when someone new approaches this stand, and as I turned round, 4 had appeared right in front of me expectantly. I had to first get the paper wrapping from the discs of food and to stop being barged by the hungry deer, I decided to start walking away from them. It was at this point I felt a sharp nip on my behind. It seems as if one of the deer took umbridge to the length of time I was taking to open the food parcel and decided to hurry me along!
After handing out the discs and beating a hasty retreat the bite / slobber mark on my posterior was photographed for... posterity.
Rolf is pictured today near to the feeding spot, with a deer who considered that Rolf might be food himself not long after I took the photo.
After this we went onwards to the temple. Mostly with Emily crying with laughter at my misfortune. The building is huge and incredibly impressive. Inside is a large bronze Buddha flanked by two large golden Buddhavistas. In the rear right of the building, there is a narrow channel carved into the base of one of the supporting pillars. It is said that passing through this will reserve a place in heaven for you. Obviously I saw the small hole and thought "I can fit through that". Apparently I can, just, maybe not gracefully and certainly not under my own steam in a reasonable amount of time... With my feet dangling out of one end, my arms pointed straight out of the other and my ribcage squashed on all side by a large pillar, I wasn't moving very fast and it took a man whose wife was next in the queue to pull me through! It seems that I am officially the largest person able to reserve their place in heaven by this manner.
From there we went back to the train station and headed for Uji. This is home to a temple featured on the 10 Yen coin. The temple was very impressive but I feel that I was flagging somewhat and also suffering from temple fatigue. Having seen many over the past few days, they are mostly rolling into one in my memory.
This evening we ate a rather nice meal at the French restaurant here in the hotel. We were looking for something simple, but it turns out that the hotel doesn't do room service.
I'm up in the mountains tomorrow so might not post until the day after.
Tata for now :)
We started the day a little later than was planned but we knew that the trains to Uji and Nara were local and frequent anyway. When I said villages yesterday... I meant more small industrial towns really, Kyoto has a kinda of urban sprawl which seems to extend most of the way south to these places. Nara was, at one point, the capital of the country for a short number of years, and has always been closely linked to the Kyoto seat of power.
The main attractions in the town are the pagodas and the temple, reportedly the largest wooden structure on the planet, holding a giant brass Buddha. These are a reasonable walk from the train station and as you reach the larger of the two pagodas (5 stories rather than 3) you first meet the wild deer that roam the parks around this end of town. When I say wild... they are very used to humans as they live in a tourist attraction, but there are signs up saying to be careful as they do bite, kick, charge and butt.
On the way through an area of park we passed a man selling "deer cookies". These appear to be disc shaped rice cakes, or something similar. Unbeknownst to me, the deer in the area know very well what it means when someone new approaches this stand, and as I turned round, 4 had appeared right in front of me expectantly. I had to first get the paper wrapping from the discs of food and to stop being barged by the hungry deer, I decided to start walking away from them. It was at this point I felt a sharp nip on my behind. It seems as if one of the deer took umbridge to the length of time I was taking to open the food parcel and decided to hurry me along!
After handing out the discs and beating a hasty retreat the bite / slobber mark on my posterior was photographed for... posterity.
Rolf is pictured today near to the feeding spot, with a deer who considered that Rolf might be food himself not long after I took the photo.
After this we went onwards to the temple. Mostly with Emily crying with laughter at my misfortune. The building is huge and incredibly impressive. Inside is a large bronze Buddha flanked by two large golden Buddhavistas. In the rear right of the building, there is a narrow channel carved into the base of one of the supporting pillars. It is said that passing through this will reserve a place in heaven for you. Obviously I saw the small hole and thought "I can fit through that". Apparently I can, just, maybe not gracefully and certainly not under my own steam in a reasonable amount of time... With my feet dangling out of one end, my arms pointed straight out of the other and my ribcage squashed on all side by a large pillar, I wasn't moving very fast and it took a man whose wife was next in the queue to pull me through! It seems that I am officially the largest person able to reserve their place in heaven by this manner.
From there we went back to the train station and headed for Uji. This is home to a temple featured on the 10 Yen coin. The temple was very impressive but I feel that I was flagging somewhat and also suffering from temple fatigue. Having seen many over the past few days, they are mostly rolling into one in my memory.
This evening we ate a rather nice meal at the French restaurant here in the hotel. We were looking for something simple, but it turns out that the hotel doesn't do room service.
I'm up in the mountains tomorrow so might not post until the day after.
Tata for now :)
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