1033: Kyoto & Nara

this is my absolute most favourite sakura pic i have taken this year.

ok but first.. Nara.

Nara has tons of deers roaming around the place and of cos deer shit was littered everywhere. but they were so cute! most of them had their antlers cut off and filed blunt for safety reasons. and they were very docile.



and there were safety signs everywhere to not disturb the deers with growing antlers, usually the baby deers that were growing up.


this deer wanted to emphasise the warning..

we went to most of the world heritage temples in Nara park that morning.. and especially the gigantic Buddha at Todaiji (東大寺）

this is a side shot of the Buddha. notice the people standing at the bottom left corner of the photo. the proportion should give u some idea of how really huge the statue is.

and from the back, notice all the planks supporting the back panel of the statue


we also went to another shrine with minor shrines inside.. there are love shrines where people can write their wishes regarding love and hang it up. look wat this japanese girl wrote -.-


and this other couple:


haha.. abit kpo.. but we couldn't help it..

we went to Arashiyama (嵐山）on saturday in Kyoto and Ryo took a pic for us. no 3 person pic in Nara which was a pity.. the Drooping sakura shidarezakura was one of the main sakura species there.


and this is the most beautiful amazing place i went to:


Fushimi Inari Jinja, home to the 千本鳥居 (senbontorii)

Torii is the name of the red structures, commonly gates to shrines in Japan. 千本　(senbon) means there are a thousand of them!! and we only managed to walk a part of the 1000.. only bout 200+ i think? this map shows the full extent of the toriis..


the red teeth-like things are all the toriis and we only covered the first stretch right at the bottom. !! Ryo's cousin was in kyoto that same day and when we met him for dinner that evening, he said he walked the whole stretch.. it took him 2 hours + .. wow.. if only we had gone there earlier..


a ghostly pic ... its quite scary when it gets dark so we decided not to stay further..

and last but not least.. we also went to Heian Jingu 平安神宮. i love this place, partly cos i really feel the peacefulness but oso cos its free hehe.


but aniway.. the full albums are at Flickr of cos.