Our Trip to Nara

Last weekend we traveled with Matt and Chelsea to Nara and Koyasan for a 3 day weekend. We took the train for 2 hours to Nara, where we spent 1 night. This city was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784, so we were able to see a lot of historical temples and UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Todaiji Temple: (World Heritage Site) Built in 752, this is currently the largest wooden building in the world! A fire actually destroyed most of it in 1692 and it was scaled down to two-thirds of the original size, but even after the damage it is still the largest wooden building.

Great Buddha: Inside the temple is the largest Buddha in Japan (49 feet tall).

In the back of the temple, there was a wooden column with a hole through its base that is exactly the same size as the Buddha's nostril. It is said that if one gets through the hole without any sort of help, that they are lucky. It was really funny watching people try to wiggle through...Melissa and Chelsea made it, but there was no chance of Frank and Matt fitting through! These are pictures of Melissa climbing through the Buddha's "nostril."

We all got flashed when this girl went through in a dress!

1200 Wild Deer: One of the best things about Nara are all the deer walking around! There are stands set up throughout the city that sell deer biscuits. The deer are really sweet and nice until you buy the food, then they all swarm on you at once!

Here is a video of Melissa feeding the deer:

Kasuga Taisha Shrine: (World Heritage Site) The path leading-up to this shrine was beautiful with hundreds of lanterns and large trees.

Kofukuji Temple: (World Heritage Site) This temple has the 2nd largest pagoda in Japan.

The pagoda was built in 1426 and is five stories tall.

Nigatsu-do: We walked uphill along a wooded path to get here to see a view of Nara.

We ended the day by walking around this lake near our hotel. It was beautiful how all the lanterns reflected off the water. The next morning we woke up early to head to Koyasan...see our next blog soon.

Mt. Shinhodaka and Hirayu Waterfall

Yesterday we went with Kiyoko and Machiko (Frank's 2 adult private students) on a road trip to Mt. Shinhodaka and Hirayu Waterfall. We drove 3 hours to visit Mt. Shinhodaka first. The scenery was beautiful, but after taking 2 cable cars to the top of the mountain (2,156 meters high), all we could see were clouds. This ropeway is actually the longest in all of Asia. Half way up, we had to transfer to a double-decker... the first 50 people go on the top floor and the next 75 go on the bottom. It took 10 minutes to reach the top.

This is our view from the ropeway and the top of the mountain! We were literally in the clouds. We were pretty disappointed with the view, especially after a 3 hour drive and paying $30 a person to use the cable car!

After visiting the mountain, we drove to Hirayu Waterfall. This made the trip worth it! It was beautiful!

Shirakawa-go Village

Last Saturday we went to visit Shirakawa-go (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which is a small historic village known for their A-frame, thatched roof farmhouses that date back to the year 1100. After many years of war and natural disasters, the people of the village came together in 1971 and agreed on "Do not sell, do not rent, and do not demolish." Since then, the families have all maintained the original village and are very involved in protecting it. It took us 2 hours to drive here, but the drive was really nice because it was all along mountains and rivers. During the day we ate lunch in one of the houses, walked down the streets, and went shopping in some of the small shops. We couldn't believe that people actually still live in these houses. It was definitely weird seeing their laundry hanging outside and the people going about their daily lives.

The straw roofs are replaced every 25-35 years by 100-200 of the villagers. The re-roofing of 1 house is done in 1 day. Every year 2 or 3 houses require new roofs, which is good so the new generations of villagers can learn the traditional methods of roofing. We weren't lucky enough to be there when a roof was being replaced, but we found the picture below on the internet of what it looks like.

We loved the terraced rice fields surrounding this house. We went inside one of the houses. We were surprised that the roof was assembled without using any nails or iron clamps, they just used tightly bound thick straw ropes.

We also visited a shrine in Shirakawa-go. It was very peaceful and serene being surrounded by huge trees.

This village was a great day trip for us and gave us a chance to see what much of Japan looked liked hundreds of years ago.