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Japan trip
Day 8 - 13th June - Nara (Part 2)
Nara street
Garden and memorial grove
Monk on fountain
Bento. I don't know why everything was wrapped in leaves.
"Don't piss the deer off"
Yes, just like Magdalen College in Oxford they have deer. However, the deer in Nara wander around a lot more freely than their British counterparts. I don't know how they keep them within the city's confines.
Deer
Chasing a guy with
Deer biscuit vendors are everywhere in Nara. It's a cartel - they all charge the same price (Y150) for the same pack of biscuits. Probably they all come from one company with a factory in China. Or maybe all the vendors are secretly Yakuza members and this is the most profitable racket in the prefecture.
Five-storied pagoda (Gojunoto), Kofukuji. It's the 2nd tallest in Japan - Kyoto's Toji is a few cm more.
Tokondo
Statues in Tokondo
Incense plug: "Enjoy Splendid Fragrance. Well-known incense sticks called 'YAKUSHIKOH', the scent of which you are enjoying here in the hall, are on sale at the office near the entrance"
Kofukuji panorama
Stuff in the corner
Five-storied pagoda (Gojunoto)
Schoolgirls and deer
Deer
"I Love Gaijin"
I wonder who started talking to who first. Another schoolgirl saw me taking this picture, and laughed.
nw.t: "doesn't really look like love
more like when you want to take a cool photo with some exotic creature
but are scared to get too close"
Deer in shade
Me and deer
Kohfukuji plaque (the official website says "Kohfukuji" but there're many more search results for "Kofukuji")
Yes, it was under renovation, like half of Japan. This, the Chukondo (Main Golden Hall) was very unimpressive and curiously ungolden.
"The Chu-kondo (Middle Golden Hall) has burned down on numerous occasions since its 710 construction. The present building is a “temporary” hail from 1819, and it is in such poor repair that it is closed to the public. (It is the building which served as the Nara Prefectural Office after the 1870s confiscation.) Its main image ofSakyamuni as well as a Yakushi image and four Shitenno have thus been placed in the building behind the Chu-kondo, a comparatively recent building which is only open to the public for a brief period in the spring and fail."
--- Nara: A Cultural Guide to Japan's Ancient Capital / John Martin, Phyllis G. Martin
Southern Octagonal Hall
Southern Octagonal Hall
"Don't toll a temple bell"
Steps down from Kofukuji
Another temple, and altar
World Heritage stone. They're so special. Other World Heritage sites in Japan have plaques. Nara has stones. Maybe it's so the deer don't eat them.
More deer. The deer in Nara seem to have blunted antlers. I doubt the monks go around dulling them, so it must be the breed (maybe in the distant past some monks got gruesomely gored, so the townsfolk feasted on venison while new deer were brought in)
Deer biskut vendor
Enjo Kosai negotiations in progress?
(Faces are obscured for privacy reasons)
NB: Enjo Kosai = 'compensated dating' - high school girls prostituting themselves to older jap men
Notice the guy poring over a map. They must be discussing which hotels are in the area. I hope he wasn't going for all 3 girls at once.
Himuro Shrine
Lazy Pussy
Shrine pond