Alessia had to go home and so I was back to traveling solo.  I decided to head to a few of the satellite towns around Osaka and the first on the list was the small town of Nara.  I had several people tell me to go there and so I decided to jump on a train and check it out.  Nara is only about 40 minutes on the train and so I was there in no time.  I dropped off my bag then headed to the giant park in town which boasted a big Buddha, Japanese gardens and lots and lots of deer.  I opted to go to the free Japanese garden first and wandered around for a bit.

I enjoy gardens, but after a bit of wandering, I saw what I had come to see and so I headed to the temple of the Big Buddha.  Todaiji temple houses the largest bronze Buddha and the temple encompassing it was once the largest wooden structures in the world until 1998.  It has been rebuilt twice due to fire and the current structure is actually 30% smaller than the original.

I circled the Buddha and enjoyed the temple for a while.  On the far side, one of the supporting posts had a hole in it that children were crawling through.  It is called Buddhas nostril and if you can crawl through the hole, you will be granted enlightenment.  Most children easily fit through the hole, but several adults attempted and failed.

The other cool thing i learned about Japanese temples here is that there are books available where you can get one of the monks to write a message related to the temple in beautiful calligraphy.  I also noticed that the Japanese love their stamps, which was really cool.  Most places you would go had stamps available where you could stamp whatever book you had to collect them in.  After exploring the big Buddha, I decided to explore the park a little bit.  There are several temples in the park as well as thousands of deer, which were fun to watch.  You could buy deer food cakes and feed the deer, but they are pretty aggressive so I opted to just watch other people get attacked, it was very entertaining. Just outside of the temple was a statue which apparently heeled ailments if the corresponding part of the body was rubbed. I was having some foot issues at the time, so i rubbed the foot and hoped for the best.

The walk continued and it involved more deer and more small sites.  It was a very enjoyable stroll through the park, with many things to look at.  I will describe it via pictures rather than try and write more.

I then wandered over to the deer pavilion, which contains the aggressive, sick or deer in heat that may be dangerous to the public.  They had some information on how the antlers of the male deer are shaved off each year in a special ceremony.  They also talked about conservation and how they make sure the dear stay safe in the park.  It was pretty interesting actually.

I continued through the park and saw a few more pagodas and temples and then headed back to the hostel for a little bit of a rest.

After a little bit of a rest at the hostel, I decided to go for a nice long run through the park.  The park area has tons of places to explore as well as a big hill which you can climb to the top.  Initially I planned to run on the windy road that climbed to the top, but quickly found that this rad was way to sketchy to run on and opted to just explore the park instead.  However, in my running I discovered a trail that went to the top of the mountain and opted to take that instead.

The run down was a bit dark and I made it back to the hostel just as the light was fading.  It was a great run and it made for an amazing view and interesting view of Nara.

After the run, I retired to the hostel to write some blog and ended up chatting with a couple who were also exploring japan from America.  I chatted with them for most of the evening and then headed to bed.

The next morning it was time for me to make my next stop.  Hiroshima via Kobe!

I jumped on the train and headed to Kobe!