Japan day 19: Nara and Tōdai-ji temple

We spent a day in Nara, the capital of Nara Prefecture in south-central Honshu. There were many temples and shrines in Nara and  a lot of deer! The deer were obviously very used to humans and you could buy crackers if you wanted to feed them. The deer also would bow to you! A man told us that the deer were actually considered messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion. This is a deer on the steps to Kofukuji Temple.

We got to visit Tōdai-ji temple, a large Budhist temple opened in 752 AD. The temple was the biggest one we found in Nara, with an impressive interior.

Tōdai-ji temple contains the largest statue of Buddha in the world, made entirely out of bronze. I found out that the Buddha is 14.98m tall, and the shoulders are 28m across. Also an interesting fact I found is that a human tooth and objects such as jewls, swords and mirrors were found inside the statue from x-raying it. The items were said to belong to the 45th emperor of Japan, Emperor Shōmu.

At the top of a hill close by to the other temples was Nigatsu-do temple. The temple was a nice place to rest and you had a pretty decent view.

After dinner that night we went to see Osaka castle, which was easy walking distance from our hotel. We'd bought some cat food to help feed some of the stray cats in the area and actually met a fat ginger cat at Osaka castle. The cat obviously didn't need much food, but we gave it a bit and it cat on my lap while we admired the castle. The castle was build in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai, general warior and politician of the Sengoku period. It was incredibly how well lit it was at night time so that you could see it's entirety and even from a distance it was completely illuminated. At midnight most of the lights went out, but the windows still glowed and there was a dull orange light over it.