Temples in Nara and Kyoto

After Hiroshima, we went to Kyoto and visited the nearby city of Nara on 28 December 2007. Nara was the capital of Japan in the 8th century, and was known to be where Buddhism and japanese art had flourished. We were able to see some very old buildings and sites here.

(Dad, me, and Marie in front of Tohdaiji Temple. This is a huge building that housed a gigantic metal Buddha. It was raining a lot this day, but this was definitely worth walking through the rain for!)

(Unfortunately, because of the lighting in the temple, it was extremely difficult to take a picture of the Buddha while capturing how massive it actually is. I am pretty sure it was at least 5 stories tall! The lotus leaves alone were taller than most of the people visiting!)

(Another very nice temple in Nara is Kasuga Taisha Shrine. It was sort of in remodeling stages, but it is known for having these hanging lanterns all around the temple)

(This is the 5-story pagoda in Kofukuji-temple grounds. It is featured in a lot of postcards and photos of Nara)

After visiting Nara for the day, the next day we had a little bit of time to spend in the city of Kyoto, so we decided that we had time to visit one temple. We decided to go to Kiyomizu-tera Temple, one of the more famous temples in Kyoto. Marie and I have been there before, and this time there were tons of tourists out visiting the grounds. It is one of my most favorite temples in Kyoto.

(The main building of Kiyomizu-tera over looks the city of Kyoto.)

(The supporting structure underneath the main building is amazing. It is mostly wood, and it is cool to see the way that everything criss crosses underneath the building into the mountainside)

(The main building as well as the surrounding buildings and the pagoda in the background. The grounds to this temple are very large, and the main building is just a small portion of the overall temple. It is like walking through a park!)