Nara

We made a day trip from Kyoto over to Nara to see the 100ft Buddha statue and visit the local deer population. Actually I didn't care much about the Buddha (Buddha himself was pretty clear that worship was inappropriate) but the statue is housed in what is billed as the largest wooden building in the world.  I was skeptical when I went -- now I'm willing to believe it. Oh, and the deer.  Local tradition once held (and probably still does) that deer are the messengers of the gods, and thus inviolate -- About a thousand years ago an edict was published forbidding the killing of deer in Nara.   This would have been fine, except that apparently one of the deer learned to read and informed the others of the situation.  Now you have a huge chunk of the city overrun with 200 pound hooved mammals with serious attitude problems -- think of them as very large housecats with diplomatic immunity, and you'll begin to understand the extent of the problem. Anyways, Nara made a good day trip.

This is not the largest wooden structure in the world.  This is the *front gate* of the largest wooden structure in the world.

This is the largest wooden structure in the world.  Scale is difficult in pictures, but you can get an idea from the people entering and leaving.  What struck me about it was not so much the size as the sheer weight of the upper stories and roofs being supported by the wooden lower stories.

This was outside the temple.  The english is quite short and to the point, but I imagine that the kanji describes in long and painful detail exactly what they do to people who smoke inside the largest wooden structure in the world.

I liked this little fellow.  Even more I liked the fact that someone had gone to the time and trouble to create him.

One of the deer.  This is not an optical illusion -- he's casually grazing about 2 feet away from buses and trucks going 40 miles an hour.

I sat with this one for a little bit.  She seemed to enjoy being petted, but was a little bit miffed that I hadn't brought any food.

Contrary to what it looks like, these children are not wailing in terror.

Also contrary to appearances, these children are not a tiny hazmat crew.

This woman was cooking some sort of Yam (we had been hoping for chestnuts).  The whole wood-stove-on-wheels thing is pretty cool, though.

Japan is home to many strange gods, and has temples and shrines dedicated to any number of mysterious spiritual paths.  This, on the other hand, is the Nara Episcopalian Church.

One of you lucky readers got eternal happiness for Christmas.  I won't reveal who...