The grocery store by the main Nara
train station was still open on new years eve so we decided to
stock up on junk food to help us bring in the new year. We went a
little overboard.
In Japan the new years celebrations are
centered around the importance of the first time something is done.
Many people visit shrines right after midnight to mark their first
visit of the year and to make wishes for the new year. At around
11:00 pm we headed over to Todai-ji temple to take part in the
festivities.
As you can imagine it was absolutely
packed. We knew a lot of people would be there but I don’t think
either of us expected it to be this crowded. We stepped in line not
really knowing how long it would take to get in the temple.
The actual celebration of the clock
hitting midnight was fairly subdued. Everyone was aware of the event but
there was not the yelling and celebrating like we see in the states.
Everyone gave a small "woo!" and turned their attention back to waiting
for the temple to open. To our surprise, despite the tens of
thousands of people, the line moved pretty efficiently.
Within 30 minutes we had made it
through the outside gates and were steps away from the main temple.
Todai-ji is a Buddhist temple that
houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana.
Once we stepped in we were greeted by the incredibly large Buddha
looking down on us. It is really hard to show the scale of just how
big this thing is through photos but it is massive (5 stories tall
and weighs 550 tons).
There are also a number of other
impressive statues in the hall.
Outside the streets were
alive with food vendors and sweet shops. There was also a huge
bonfire just outside of the temple where people were congregating. We
headed out and took part in the celebrations.
I got a local delicacy they call a
“hot dog”.
We headed home around 2 am and passed
out instantaneously. The next day we rented a pair of bikes and
ventured out to see the rest that Nara has to offer. One thing to note
is that the city is littered with deer.
They sell deer biscuits all over town
and we bought a bundle to use as we biked around. You have to be
careful and only pull out small amounts at a time because the deer tend to
get aggressive if they know you are packing.
We spent our day visiting
the other historic temples in the city. Once again the crowds were
in full force. Most of the temples and shrines sell good luck charms
for various things like safe travel and future love. There were huge
lines to purchase these items.
After covering a large portion of the
city we had to call it quits because our train back to Kyoto was going to leave without us. From Kyoto we were to catch the bullet train to Tokyo. We returned our bikes and
then stopped at the grocery store one more time to grab dinner to eat
on the train.
Its a 4 hour ride over to the capital
so we have some time to catch our breath before our next adventure. All in all it was a very pleasant new years.
