travel

A weekend in the Kinki region - Nara

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On the Saturday,  we spent our time in the rainy vicinity of Kyoto. On Sunday morning, we decided to brave the [now torrential] rain, and take a trip down south, to Nara. Unfortunately, what is supposed to be a 45 minute journey ended up being almost 2 hours due to the weather. It was almost like being in the UK! No matter. By the time we arrived the rain had almost stopped, and we set off walking around this peaceful city.

Nara is famously full of deer. They're wild, but very docile. Some even bow for the tourists (they expect some food for their efforts). Unfortunately, there were too many rowdy tourists to enjoy the area near the main temple, Toudaiji. People were shouting, posing strangely with the animals, and generally acting in a manner which I did not think was fitting for the scene.

Toudaiji. There's a massive Buddha inside, but if you want to see it, you'll have to visit

After we'd seen the impressive Toudaiji, we saw in which direction the crowds were headed, and turned 180° and started walking. I'm very glad we did. We could finally relax, as there were almost no people up in the hills, though we did "meet" one Chinese tourist group.

The rain made everything feel extremely lush, as if anyone caught taking a quiet nap would be consumed by the vegetation. Moss covered almost everything, which was really quite beautiful.

There were almost as many lanterns as deer

We walked from the temples in the north of Nara, around to the eastern edge. At this point, we were elated when the sun split two clouds overhead and we were greeted with our first proper shadow of the day. I ran down to get a photo of this bucket, as it was the closest object at the time. The sun then disappeared, after just a few seconds.  

I mentioned the deer. Well, up in the hills they don't seem to pester the (few) tourists, and generally go about their business. This made for an all-round nicer experience, more in keeping with the deer we saw in Miyajima. Unlike the deer in Miyajima (click to see them), these ones had little white 'bambi' spots (which may mean they were fawns, but I couldn't tell you for sure). We did see a few fawns, though. And they were too cute for words!

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The journey back to Kyoto wasn't anywhere near as bad as the outward journey. We took a different train line, and made a B-line straight for a shrine I really wanted to take a photo of. It's rather famous. It has thousands upon thousands of bright red Tori gates ascending high into the mountain. I'd envisioned getting there around magic hour, but there basically wasn't one. By the time we got there, it was pitch black, but still quite beautiful. Another benefit of visiting a bit later, was that we were the only people there at this time, and so could take our time and really relax on our final night.

Well, that concludes our weekend trip to the Kinki Region of Japan.  I hope you've enjoyed the photo-journal, even though it's a little photo-heavy. If you have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear them.

I recommend a journey to Kyoto and Nara. I think that even if the weather is pretty atrocious, it's possible to have a great time and even the rain doesn't detract from the beauty to be found in this historic area of Japan. See you next time!

The Great Buddha of Kamakura

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Kamakura Pt. 3 - Kōtoku-in

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Continuing our cycle trip through the city of Kamakura (links to part 1 and part 2) , we visited the ancient "Great Buddha" or Daibutsu.

The enormous Daibutsu

The enormous Daibutsu

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amitābha Buddha located at the Kōtoku-in Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The bronze statue probably dates from 1252, in the Kamakura period, according to temple records. It was preceded by a giant wooden Buddha, which was completed in 1243 after ten years of continuous labor, the funds having been raised by Lady Inada (Inada-no-Tsubone) and the Buddhist priest Jōkō of Tōtōmi. That wooden statue was damaged by a storm in 1248, and the hall containing it was destroyed, so Jōkō suggested making another statue of bronze, and the huge amount of money necessary for this and for a new hall was raised for the project. The bronze image was probably cast by Ōno Gorōemon or Tanji Hisatomo, both leading casters of the time. At one time, the statue was gilded. There are still traces of gold leaf near the statue's ears. It is unclear, however, whether the statue constructed in 1252 is the same statue as the present statue.
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Some stats on this humongous statue:

  • Weight; 121 tonnes (270,000 pounds)
  • Height; 13.35 m (43.8 ft)
  • Length of Face; 2.35 m (7.7 ft)
  • Length of Eye; 1.0 m (3.3 ft)
  • Length of Mouth; 0.82 m (2.7 ft)
  • Length of Ear; 1.90 m (6.2 ft)
  • Length from knee to knee; 9.10 m (29.9 ft)
  • Circumference of thumb; 0.85 m (2.8 ft)

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A fellow NEX-7 user using his SEL18200

The grounds surrounding the Buddha are very well kept, and relatively peaceful. As 99% of people are drawn to the enormous statue (and rightly so), there are some decent photographic, or simply relaxing, moments to be had in the grounds.

There's quite a collection of people in front of the Buddha. Some are simply standing in awe. Most people start off in this manner. Then, our comes their phone. A few will switch to their dedicated cameras. Finally, there are the people finishing their photos, who turn around and see ~100 cameras pointed in their direction. From studying these people, I have learnt that the proper technique is to crouch down and lollop out of the way, whilst shyly smiling. That's a photo-project in itself!

 

After taking the mandatory photos of the Buddha, my attention (and most others) was directed further upwards, where high aloft, raptors were screeching and circling. They could have been either the Black-eared Kite or Japanese Sparrowhawk. I did see one such bird chasing a sparrow mid-flight, which was something to behold.

The above photos are heavily cropped; click for larger. All photos on this page were taken with my NEX-7 and SEL18200LE lens. Click here for the lens review. It's at times like this that I wish I had maybe a 400mm lens atop a Canon 5Dmkiii... but carrying that thing around (let alone paying for the combo) would not have been fun on my little bicycle. Plus, if there weren't any such birds around, I probably wouldn't be worrying about such scenarios.

This concludes my Kamakura-by-bicycle photo-journal. I hope you've enjoyed the ride :)