Repository of Cultural Treasures – Todaiji, Nara

During breakfast in the hotel, I wonder why my travel friends brought quite lots of white bread wrapping them with tissue papers, I thought they would eat them in the bus during our trip to Nara. When we arrived in the park, I’d just realized that they would like to feed the deers. Nara Park (Nara Koen) is a large, pleasant park in central Nara, established in 1880. The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered messengers of the Gods in Shinto, Nara's deer have become a symbol of the city and have even been designated a National Treasure. Actually you also could buy from the sellers in the park, something crispy for feeding them. My friend gave me some bread in the tissue paper, the roaming deer was not patient enough, they even ate the tissue paper, there’s not enough time for me to open it. Unfortunately I could not speak Japanese :-), so I could not prohibit them to eat it.

It is the location of many of Nara's main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum (specialized in Buddhist art). Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. By paying 500¥ you could enter the temple, which opens 7:30 (8:00 from Nov through Mar), closes 17:30 (16:30 from Nov through Feb, 17:00 in Mar and Oct). The main entrance to the temple is through the 13th-century Nandaimon (Great Southern Gate). It features two impressive guardian statues of the Nio (Benevolent Kings), carved in 1203 and each more than 8 meters tall.

Todaiji, a temple complex in the city of Nara in Nara Prefecture, was constructed in 752 on the order of Emperor Shomu as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 in order to lower its influence on government affairs. At the time Buddhism was at its height, and served as a state religion. Todajji's main temple building, the Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall), 48 meters (157 feet) in height, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that the present reconstruction (from 1692) is only two thirds of the original temple's size. Within the precincts of the temple, aligned along one-kilometer north-south and east-west axes centered on the Daibutsu-den, are an array of other buildings, including halls and storehouses, seven of which are National Treasures. By virtue of being one of the major historical temples in Japan, Todaiji Temple also possesses many valuable cultural artifacts. More than 20 of these Buddhist statues and other works of art are National Treasures. The repository for them, Shosoin, lives up its name of the Treasure House of the World.


The original complex also contained two 100-meter-high pagodas, probably the tallest buildings in the world at the time, but these were destroyed by earthquake. Todaiji is famous for housing Japan's largest Buddha statue. It depicts the Buddha Vairocana and, like the one at Kamakura, is commonly known as the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). The Daibutsu is made of copper and bronze, weighs 250 tons and stands 30 meters tall. His intricate hairstyle is made of 966 bronze balls.

Also of interest in the Daibutsu-den are the rear support pillars, which have holes through the bottom. Popular belief has it that if one is successful in squeezing through one of these "healing pillars," he or she is guaranteed a place in Heaven. So many Japanese students visited the temple during my visit, some of them were dare to try to go through the hole. The hole was very narrow, it’s almost impossible for a fat girl or boy to go through it. Whenever anybody succeeded to go through, the people would give applauses.

Outside the Daibutsuden at the bottom of the steps, don't miss the bronze Octagonal Lantern, one of the oldest treasures in Todaiji — it dates from the original 8th-century temple. The lantern's support post is inscribed with a Buddhist text on the merits of lighting lanterns.

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Beautiful cherry blossoms in Ueno Park

When I joined Japan tour in April 2004, the tour directly brought us to Ueno area from Narita International airport, Tokyo. The bus parked in front of the zoo, but we didn’t visit the zoo, we went through Ueno traditional market and passed by Ameyayokocho gateway. Ameya Yokocho or Ameyoko Market in Ueno is one of those active retail markets. The name Ameyoko derives from America. Its history began soon after the WWII as a yamiichi (black market). At that time, there was a huge demand to daily necessities while there was little supply. Obtained from the U.S. military, retailers started selling the limited amount of goods at this market without the government permission. It was flourished throughout the post-war period, and is still active today. Purchasing a good you have to ask and bargain, most of the traditional market was disappeared nowdays, except at tourist site.


It was so crowded, there were so many fishes sold that I could not find it in Indonesia as we know Japanese people like to eat fresh fish. They sold a big red octopus, salmon, eel, trout, stingray, snail, seaweed, etc, although it’s fresh, the market was very clean. The fish were wrapped by plastic on a styrofom such as fruit, or they put on ice or in the water for keeping it fresh. Some fruits stalls were also available, even some food stalls selling Japanese foods. The unique attraction was the ¥1000 stall. The seller put everything (various snack or toys) in a plastic bag, it’s like an auction, he shouted to the crowd who would like to buy, one full bag items only cost ¥1000. If nobody was interested in it, the seller kept adding more and more items one by one into the bag, until somebody decided to buy it. If you’re lucky, you could get many items in a bag, maybe it’s very cheaper comparing to buy pieces. I didn’t dare to buy, because it’s the first day in Japan, and I didn’t know how much the normal prize for the items. Anyway it’s fun to see an attraction like that. All of the store names and the items were in Japanese language (kanji), so we didn’t understand at all, but don’t worry, the price was still written using number 

We kept walking through the market to the Ueno Park (上野公園 Ueno Kōen?). It is the first Tokyo public park located in the Ueno section of Taito, Tokyo, Japan. I really loved the park which was opened in 1873, it’s spacious and very shady by around 1000 cherry trees or Sakura trees. I went to Japan during Sakura blossom period, which was only 2 weeks period in a year. The cherry blossom (sakura) is Japan's unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and holds a very prominent position in Japanese culture. There are many dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring.

It was very delighted, whenever the wind was blowing, Sakura flower were falling down, as if flower raining on your body. You could see Sakura flowers everywhere, pink, white without any leaves, it was so amazing and wonderful. So many families and people with their friends or colleagues had a party in the park called hanami (cherry blossoms viewing). They brought mats for sitting and eating under the blooming beautiful Sakura flowers in the garden. Japanese people were very discipline and very responsible, they never threw away the trash anywhere, they would put it in the garbage bin, even they put the wet and dry trash in different bin. To avoid pollutions, no motor vehicle was allowed to go through the park, although the street was wide enough. Some bicycles were still appeared in some places, some people with wheelchairs, baby with strollers also enjoyed the park. My colleague and I had a chance to take a picture with 3 cute Japanese babies on the strollers, of course by asking permission from their mom.

Ueno Park is famous for its many museums, especially art museums, namely the Tokyo National Museum, the Orient Museum, the National Science Museum, the Shitamachi Museum, the National Museum for Western Art and the Tokyo Metropolitan Fine Art Gallery. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to enter the museum. At the other side of the park, there was a fountain, some tame pigeons were assembled in the middle of the open area in the park. Many children were attempted to catch the pigeon, they also tried to give foods to the pigeons. If you go to Japan on April, you must visit this park, it’s very wonderful, you won’t regret it for the whole life of your age.

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