Better Late then Never

Family trip continued.

• Deer Park, Nara. Where are the deer you ask? Good question. Their poop is there on the bottom right. Almost immediately after getting off of the bus, my mom suggested that we buy some deer wafers to feed them. So I did, and was promptly surrounded by deer. I threw the wafers at my mom and let her get bucked by the mangy creatures. Gross. The baby ones were cute though.

• Todaiji Temple. Huge.

• World's largest wooden Buddha at Todaiji Temple. Very difficult to get a sense of scale. One of his fingers is probably about the size of an adult person. Our tour guide on this day was full of information...she talked the whole two hours on the bus from Kyoto to Nara (or so I'm told, I was sleeping off the buffet lunch) and throughout our time at the temple. Unfortunately she had the bad habit of saying "ahh" in between every 4th or 5th word. I don't think I really heard anything she said, just the "ahhs."

• Approaching Kyomizudera in Kyoto. At the top of a big hill. Lots and lots of people.

• A rather pale me standing next to Kyomizudera's intense support structure.

• Like so many other Buddhist temples in Japan, Kyomizudera shares part of its grounds with a Shinto shrine. The one at Kyomizudera was dedicated to the god of love and relationships. The couple-lyness of it all was a bit much. Maybe I should have at least tossed in a coin though, Valentine's Day is coming up!

• Beautiful garden we stopped at on our last day in Kyoto. We almost didn't make it inside, we walked around the whole thing before finding the gate. Worth the walk.

• If it looks this good in December, just imagine it in bloom in the spring!

• Sand sculptures at Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavillion). So intricate, so perfect. This flat expanse represented a lake. A cone off to the right represented a mountain. Go figure.
  

• The weather wasn't quite as nice on the day we went to Ginkakuji, but it actually made it rather atmospheric. Ginkakuji isn't all blinged out the way Kinkakuji is...the guy who built it ran out of money before he could put on the silver leaf. Whoops. Still a very nice garden though.

• Need a fan?

• Kyoto Tower at night. Did not go up this one.

• New Year's Eve at Narita-san in Kurume. I had no idea what to expect, but I had heard that you had to go to a temple at midnight to hear them ring the bells 108 times, chasing away the 108 and sins to start the new year off right. All of a sudden, it sounded like people were counting down, and then it was over. Hmmmmmmmmm. Maybe next year I'll understand more (oh yes! That's right! I officially signed my recontracting papers and will be staying another year)
  

• Street leading up to Narita-san. It was actually snowing! which was really cool (pun intended) but it made things very cold and soggy.

And that concludes the Phelander's Holidays in Japan 2007-8 entries. Yosh!