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Japan Trip- Day 4 Kyoto to Todaiji Temple in Nara

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The previous post in this series is here..

While on the bus from Osaka to Kyoto, we had already decided to go back to Nara to see the Todaiji temple and the giant Buddha. It meant having to get up the very next day and take an early train.

There was no breakfast included in our hotel in Kyoto. Also, my BFF and me decided that there will be more Uniqlo shopping. That meant, every food item we had got from the US in case we could not find veggie food had to be consumed to make way for clothes.

We got up early, folks got stuff at a 7-11 outside the train station and we got on the train to Nara.

We walked literally past the deer park that we had visited the previous day and went on for another 20 minutes through quiet streets and parking lots to the Todaiji temple. This temple has a very very large Buddha statue and the entire temple complex is huge and amazing. It was built in the mid 700’s out of wood and metal nails. It is massive. Then the deer are everywhere. They smelled the energy bars in my bag and kept going for it!

The temple had a small hole in a pillar through which folks were trying to squeeze themselves. A few kids made it but adults tried and failed. I did a corkscrew maneuver through that tiny hole and my friend pulled me out a bit! Everyone there clapped for me. Apparently folks who can go through that hole in the pillar are in for good times. That certainly has been true. (you can see it in the video). It was a nice experience.

Do NOT miss this temple when in Nara. It will take at least a few hours to see the temple and the museum which is fantastic (sadly, no photos allowed inside museum) but you get to see the artifacts from 700 AD of wooden Saraswathi and Lakshmi that are even more impressive than the Bronze statues we see in Tanjavur museum that came 200 years later. Two photo galleries..

A few photos in landscape format..

It started drizzling when we came out of the temple. The photos we got were gorgeous with the rain clouds being all dramatic. We stopped for some ice cream on the way out. We were in two minds to eat something in Nara or go back to Kyoto and eat. Decided to stop at the 7-11 opposite the deer park for a short break (the restrooms are there) and we made our way back to Kyoto. By the time we had finished the temple the restaurants weren’t open.

Jr. wanted to eat in this famous Raman place in Nara, but it wasn’t meant to be.

A longer video highlight reel.. especially the train ride. Trains crossing each other every 3rd minute at that speed. 6 year old kids just traveling on their own for 30 minutes by train to go to school. A very different country and a very different culture.

We caught the next train back and were in Kyoto station. Our next location was bittersweet.. that in the next post.

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Seen one ash buried city, you have seen them all - Pompeii

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The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting Herculaneum, I drove in peak traffic to Pompeii. There are a lot of one way roads and once in Pompeii, there was no parking. Finally we found parking. When we got out, San and the kids were tired. It was a 100 F outside and Jr. said she was not feeling well. This was our healthy child ! Was it because of the two hour soak in the sea the previous evening? In any case, they decided to go find a place to eat and message me. Was given one hour from entry to exit in Pompeii. There were a few people in front of me in the line who did not share my sense of urgency and were blocking all lanes in hopes that one of them would get to the counter. The girls whose job it was to order the crowd to the limited ticket counters were useless and just sat there gossipping. Once I got my ticket, I just ran through the entire site. Clicked a few selfies on the way, and followed the crowd all the way to the amphitheater.

The rooms and roads of Pompeii give you the same impression as Herculaneum, but the homes seem not as lavish. Seems to be a larger crowded place. These are some unique things that caught my eye that were different from the previous site. The amphitheater at the end of the site that could house 10,000 people was just amazing as was the gymnasium courtyard. All of it gone in the blink of an eye, thanks to a volcano!

Only 360 pano shot I took in this place standing in the middle of the amphitheater.

A video highlights reel of my run through Pompeii.

When I started coming back, took a weird turn and ended up at a different exit.

I got lost in the end and saw no one for a minute and panicked.. finally two ladies who had a map told me there are multiple entrances to the place and the one where my family stayed back is most likely on the other end of the complex but was a straight 10 minute walk. That saved me..

It is better to do Herculaneum first than Pompeii. Glad I went there first and earlier in the morning. The place gets very hot. Maybe allot more time and do one site in the morning and the other in the evening?! In any case, the photos and videos here tell you the story!

Finally realized that my family had not given me their location because I had no data plan and was in airplane mode! Then found out that they had already finished lunch and were waiting for me at a nice place. They watched me eat a full pizza in record time and we started our walk back to the parking lot. It was a long drive in traffic back to our hotel in Sorrento. Came back to the room, showered again and went down to have some hot tea. Then had to take a power nap before leaving again on yet another adventure!

All said and done, do not miss visiting this site. Just allot more time, take an umbrella and a bottle of water and then roam around at a leisurely pace!

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The earth saves some human history - Ercolano - Herculaneum

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The previous post in this series is here..

Original plan was to get the car in Naples and use it only to drive to and from airport. We looked at the maps, parking, traffic etc. and realized that in order to save time, it is best to drive to the buried city of Herculaneum first and enter the archeological site as soon as it opens. From there drive to Pompeii and finally drive back to Sorrento to the hotel, change and go to the Kayak starting point.

The morning traffic was surprisingly not bad to Ercolano where the Herculaneum buried village(or town) was. Once there, we missed a turn and ended up in a one way street that was as wide as the car. Pretty much had to fold the mirrors and drive through that lane and make it to a wider lane. Then folks directed us to the right parking spot. It was harrowing.

Nothing compared to what those poor folks felt in 47 AD when they were all buried in ash in a few moments.

Thanks to that event, we get to see what their life was like. The walls, the floors, the amphoras, statutes, frescos, graffiti, everything was just fascinating.

If you ever go to the Amalfi coast do not miss seeing Herculaneum. It may be smaller in size than Pompeii, but the houses and villas are grander. This was the rich peoples area of the time and you can clearly see the difference. By the time we got out of this place the temperatures were already climbing.

Here are some photos.. took me some time to process them in HDR. Knew when I shot them that it will need HDR processing, so did not worry about the light at that time.

some more images..

A long video of this site.. there was so many rooms and I tried capturing 10 second clips of every room or new thing and it all added up to almost 10 minutes!

We got some bottles of water outside the parking lot and made a dash to get to Pompeii after this. We were told to expect long lines everywhere, traffic and a parking nightmare in Pompeii.

So off we went..

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.