So we hopped a local to Uji.
The main things for us here where Byodoin, tea shops and pottery. So we scouted out the tourist lady and headed out to Byodoin under gray skies. Fortunately this time it wasn't destined to rain all over me :)
It looks like we just missed the flowers. Still It's a beautiful place. We wandered around a bit taking photos and finally got to the Museum. Since the last time (2005) they've finished a restoration of the canopy over the Buddha inside the temple. There was an exhibit of how they did the intricate inlay of mother of pearl. Neat stuff.
Once we finished wandering about we headed across the river to visit a pottery shop. We found out that the potter is a Nat'l treasure. His stuff is exquisite....with a price to match. So, we went to lunch and decided to head over to Nara and see Todaiji.
Todaiji is located in a large park. That park is populated by temple deer. The deer have become habituated to man and the things will eat just about anything. Like toilet paper, clothing, passports, etc...
It's stuff like this that get tourists in our National Parks hurt and even killed every year. Wild animals are all too east for these folk to think of as what they have back home.
After we escaped the horde of locusts, we headed through the gate.
And arrived at the temple. To give you an idea of the size of this place, the ants at the bottom of the building are people. This is the largest free standing wooden structure in the world.
Inside the temple is the wooden statue of Buddha.
The scale: The thumb is approx. 5'high.
An interesting side note is in one of the pillars. There is a hole there carved to the size of one of the Buddhas nostril holes. It's said that going through this hole cleanses you of all sins (or something to that effect). Last time Mark was here he crawled through...barely. So in a fit of ... whatever, Mark decided to do it again. Even though he's older, and bigger. Well, see for yourself.
A VERY tight fit. But he made it...this time. Becky missed this turn of events so we had to explain it to her. The final explanation was along the lines of "Mark fit through a hole the size of the Buddhas nostril". And now all she can see whenever she looks at a picture of the statue is Mark coming out of the statues nostril like...well, you get the picture :)
After this we decided to call it a day and head back. Only to see this once we hit the gate.
Yup, a whole city blocks worth of kids. With about the same amount behind us. This is common during this time of year as the kids get to go to historical places for school.
After a harrowing escape ;) we started to wander back to the station. Only to find our way to a second hand store. Since none of us are capable of passing something like this up we went in. Somehow I don't think that the owners really understood all of what they had. I found a Bizen ware Mizu-hashi for 1/6th of the normal price. And that was only one of MANY things there. Now that I know where it is I'll be going back again next trip.
That'll be it for tonight. Tomorrow we'll be staying in town.
Happy Mothers day Mom.
