i love you, my deer!

Day 2 of the seishun 18 kippu trip!

Itinerary and Goals: break the curse of Kinkaku-ji, feed deer, see Buddha, eat okonomiyaki.

We woke up early in the morning to visit Kinkaku-ji, the temple we could not visit yesterday.
Kinkaku-ji is the "Golden Pavilion" and my number one recommended temple of Kyoto. Unlike Ginkaku-ji, this one actually is plated with gold and situated right in the center of a body of water. On a sunny day, the golden temple reflects off the water and creates a beautiful scenery. The place gets really crowded no matter the time of year, though, so the best time to go is either right when it opens (at 9:00) or shortly before it closes (at 17:00).

  

鏡湖池
Mirror Pond

Kinkaku-ji is set in a strolling landscape garden (回遊式庭園), with a large pond in the middle. The pond contains ten smaller islands, and bridges and plants arranged in a specific way to represent famous places in Chinese and Japanese literature. The largest islet in the pond represents the Japanese islands, and the four stones forming a straight line in the pond near the pavilion are intended to represent sailboats anchored at night, bound for the Isle of Eternal Life in Chinese mythology.
Actually, there is a myth that says that the emperor of China (I forget which), in search for the fountain of youth and eternal life, did send a group of people out towards Japan. Those people, failing to find it, were afraid of going back empty-handed, so they decided to settle down in there. That's why a lot of the temple and building architecture in Japan is so similar to those of China. I don't know the degree of truth to this myth, but after learning about the construction of Kinkaku-ji, it makes me wonder.

coin toss

Unexpectedly, we were able to see Daimonji-san outside of the temple! What a nice surprise! I had been looking for this mountain for forever since hiking Fuji.






We headed out for Nara in the afternoon and got our first stamp on the 18kippu. Nara was fairly close by (only 40 minutes away from Kyoto). There were three things I wanted to do in Nara: visit the daibutsu, feed the deer, and eat the local food. All of those were located in the same general area, so we went to eat first. 

   

Kyoto Station: Japan's second largest station building (first being Nagoya (JR Headquarters)).

Everything is there; there is a shopping mall, a hotel, a movie theater, the Isetan (department store)–you name it–there are even government facilities here. Oh, and not to forget the trains that can take you everywhere in the Kansai region.

Sento-kun, Nara's mascot
Sento-kun is supposed to resemble "an amiable young boy who has the antlers of a deer, an animal which has long been regarded as a heavenly protector of the city." --basically half deer, half Buddha, representing the ancient capital of Japan.
There has been controversy over this issue, though, since the locals were not involved in the choosing of the mascot, and some people were offended, deeming it sacrilegious towards Buddha. Plus, many said that it wasn't that cute, but in fact, creepy. So, in protest, people have submitted their own creations of Nara mascots and it got narrowed down to this:  

Manto-kun
With a temple roof as a hat, deer hoofs and antlers, and a white cape, I can say one thing about him: so cute!~ and so ideally Japanese.
So which do you think is more fit to be the mascot?

The restaurant we went to was called Shizuka and they served a local Nara food, called kamameshi, which is iron-pot cooked rice with burdock, carrots, asparagus, egg, etc. on top. The pot is extremely hot, so you have to be careful. 

But basically, you scoop your rice out into a bowl to eat, so every time you do so, make sure you put the lid back on because that is what will help produce okoge, which is slightly burnt rice at the bottom and sides of the pot (aka the best part ;), you guys know how much I like <slightly> burnt food). So it’s kind of like stone-cooked rice.

They even give you directions in English and Japanese on how to eat kamameshi.

Here's what the restaurant looks like inside. They have two seatings, Japanese traditional and western. We chose this restaurant because it was recommended in our travel book, but probably it is suggested in other places as well, because there were a lott of customers and more than half were foreigners.

kamameshi
釜飯

okoge, "scorched rice"
お焦げ
reminds me of Chinese guoba 鍋巴

We headed to see the daibutsu next (The Great Buddha), which is located in Todai-ji. Along the way, we crossed Nara-koen (Nara Park) and were able to see a lot of sika deer.

Beware, though, as deer are still wild animals and may bite, kick, headbutt, or knock you down.

Entrance to Todai-ji

The Daibutsu Hall

purification

The Great Buddha
大仏

The Great Buddha Hall was reallllly big, with pillars that must have come from trees that were several thousand years old.

But aside from the Great Buddha, there were also statues of other deities.

And outside the entrance of the Hall, there is a statue of Binzuru (賓頭盧 Pindola Bharadvaja), who was one of the four Arhats asked by Buddha to remain in the world to propagate Buddhist law (Dharma) (according to the earliest Indian sutra).
He is said to have healing powers: by rubbing the area of ailment on Pindola and the corresponding part on yourself, your ailment will be cured. 

incense

 Then, we decided to go around the northern part of Nara to see what was around there. 

We stumbled across Mount Wakayama, where deer can be seen running up and down a hill. 

and this fraudulent vending machine outside one of the souvenir shops. >o< (here's why)

We stumbled across Kasuga Taisha, a shrine located at the foot of a hill in a wooded setting, where there were supposed to be “herds of deer” (this was a lie; either the environment changed since the publication of our guidebook, or we were at the wrong place). Nonetheless, the shrine was really pretty. If you thought Fushimi Inari Taisha had a lot of torii, Kasuga Taisha had even more lanterns! 

a nice hut in the mountains 

  

Sagihara Pathway

鷺原道

This foresty pathway is home to these gigantic Ichiigashi trees.  Back in the eighth century (when Kasuga Taisha was enshrined, the forest was filled with these trees. Nowadays, though, you can only see a few of these giant trees whose trunks measure over three meters in circumference.

spotted our first deer in the mountains. These deer were much gentler than the deer in Nara Park, probably because they aren't as exposed to humans.

Sagihara Street eventually led us to this open grassland, where there were tons of deer. Once I reached into my bag for a senbei, they all started advancing towards me.

There was this one deer that was reallllly persistent. I did give it a senbei, but I wanted to feed the other deer, too, so I moved away from it. But it kept following me and even bit me! How vicious. That's the last time I'm feeding Nara deer.
  

Afterwards, we headed back to the train station and headed off to Osaka!

It was already dark by the time we reached our hotel, so we didn't go anywhere far for dinner. Luckily, our hotel was right around Tenjinbashisuji, which is a huge shopping street (the longest in Japan, in fact--at 2.6 kilometers, it takes roughly 40 minutes to walk through).

We decided to have okonomiyaki for dinner at this restaurant called Yukari.

of course, you need the spatula for okonomiyaki

   

It was sooo delishh. Osaka okonomiyaki is definitely different from the others I had. These ones had toppings. (I can't believe I don't have a picture of the final products. Please watch video below to see.)

and the summer limited yakisoba

By the way, the accommodation we booked for is at Hotel Il Grande Umeda. We will be staying here for two nights. ¥6750 for a room for two (one full sized bed, full amenities). Will review later.