Japan 2023. Day 34. Nara

Today I took a break from my motorcycle tour of Japan, and decided to use Japan  Railways (JR) to go visit the town of Nara. I like the train, although in Japan it can be quite confusing because they operate different lines on the same railway network. For example, from here in Iga I had to take the local line for a couple of stations (260 yen) so I could transfer to a JR line (680 yen) that would take me 80% of the way, before I transferred to yet another line that eventually brought me to Nara. I love these little challenges, and feel quite grateful to the local railway employees who go out of their way to make sure I am on the right train at the right time.

Nara is an old capital of the Japanese empire (710-784 AD), at a time when fervor for the Buddhist faith was at a peak, and has to be the place with the highest density of Buddhist temples in Japan (although it is still not a match for Chiangmai Mai in Thailand). To me, a provincial from the sticks who has seen nothing but Shinto chapels, it looks like an overkill. Of course, as a country bumpkin used to being the only Gaijin in the prefecture, the other thing that is very noticeable is the presence of Gaijin tourists. Big, pink, and loud they seem out of place in gentle Japan.

Nara is also known for its famous deer, who freely move through the eastern third of the city, begging for alms. They are super tame, but said tourists often forget that deer are wild animals, with a strong instinct of self-preservation, and can be quite dangerous if they are startled (for example, by that loud kid chasing after a fawn). They are the undisputed owners of the green areas of the city, where many of the big temples are located, so in my mind deer and tourists belong together in Nara.

The jewel of the complex of temples is the Great Buddha temple, where a sitting bronze Buddha dominates the temple. The giant statue is maybe 30 m high (as tall as a 4-story building) and sits enigmatically between two additional, slightly smaller gilded statues of Buddha, and is surrounded by four hideous and terrifying "demons" (actually, they may be alternate representations of Buddha, in a less enlightened state). Maybe a little repetitive, but certainly very impressive.

In due time I took the same sequence of trains to get back to my temporary home in Iga, at about 4 pm, and leisurely walked from the train station to the hotel. It was overcast but warm and with high humidity. I took a few minutes to go shopping at the local supermarket, go to my room, dressed to go to the onsen, and suddenly the skies opened and from the window of my room I saw the most violent storm hit the town. Oh, how pretty rain is when you watch it form under a safe roof!