Todaiji
Japan's largest bronze Buddha statue
En route to Kobe, we made a brief stop at Nara, about 42km from Kyoto. Nara is Japan's first capital and was established in the year 710. Nara is famous for the Todaiji (東大寺-Great Eastern Temple), an old temple constructed in 752. Todaiji houses Japan's largest bronze Buddha. The building itself, is also the world's largest wooden structure.
What I like about Nara is the old-Japan feel and the deer-ry surrounding. The deers are free to roam about and not in a confined area. One can touch and feed the deers and sometimes could get me abit agitated by their persistent pursuit for food.
In the Todaiji, one gets to try (and challenge themselves) to crawl through a small hole located at one of the supporting pillars of the temple. I would presume the hole measures about 1 foot x 1.5feet. It is said that if one could crawl through the hole successfully, they would achieve enlightenment. I feel this is so blasphemous especially coming from a place where the Great Buddha is exhibited, but for the sake of the "challenge", I tried. I managed to get through the hole without much difficulty even though the guy before me got stucked and I had to pull him out. I read that there were many more cases (every year) where the fire department had to be called to the scene to extricate people out of the small hole. These people may later realise they had to lose a few kilos, get some "en-lighten-ment" before trying again....
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