The last time I went to this place — 11 months ago
We visited Nara as a day trip from Kyoto. Shortly after leaving the station, we walked through the small central business district, and came to Nara’s park. We saw the famous five story pagoda, and herds of the tame deer that roam the park. We then went to the where the daibutsu is housed. This temple is still the largest wooden building in the world, even though the latest version of it from the 1700s is 2/3s the size of the original, which burned down.
After lunch, we then went to Shinyakushiji, which was built in the mid 700s. All but one of the original statues guarding the image of the buddha are still there. The building was in some disrepair when I visited 20+ years ago, and gloomily lit, such that it really felt like it was ancient but decrepit. They have since spruced the place up considerably, and I think it is much nicer. They had a photo of a model of one of the statues painted as it would have appeared 1200+ years ago – I am reminded that I have read that those classic white marble greek statues were also apparently originally brightly painted.
From there we walked back in the sticky heat back to the Nara train station and back to Kyoto.
