Nara

I'm back at school now, but last week I went to Nara south of Kyoto. Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan, currently celebrating its 1300th year since it was made the capital. During that period, Buddhism had a lot of influence in Japan and Nara remained an important religious and cultural center to this day.

One of the most famous buildings in Nara is Todai-ji. It's the largest wooden building in the world and the original (that burned down 400-500 years ago) was even bigger. Inside is a large statue of Buddha:



Nara is well known for the deer that roam the streets freely. The Shinto religion considers them to be the spirits of local resident's ancestors. It's considered very bad luck if one shows up dead in your lawn, so everyone in Nara wakes up early to look for dead deer and, if found, move them to their neighbor's lawn:


There are biscuits you can give the deer for sale at almost every store in the park. The deer are well aware of this fact as they crowd around the baskets holding them:


You have to be careful though, sometimes the deer get aggressive: