Japan 2008 - Day 2
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
2nd day of our trip was more of visiting the ancient temples in Japan.
Leaving Osaka, we travelled northwards to Kyoto, where we visited 2 temples: Todaiji Temple with the largest bronze statue in Japan and Kiyomizu Temple, where people often prayed for love and relationships.
Cherry blossoms were aplenty at Todaiji Temple, because of it's proximity to Osaka I guess. This is also where the Nara Deer Park is. It was believed that deers were the holy animals during the ancient times, so one can see deers roaming around freely, eating food handouts from tourists or the roadside vendors and occasionally, their poop pile. :P
The giant bronze Buddha statue
Click to see what I wrote for us :)Inside the temple, people can purchase wooden tablets and write their wishes on it and hanging it on the wall for blessings. I remembered seeing this in some travel documentary or drama shows, so I bought one and wrote wishes for me and MB. Mum bought one too and wrote wishes of good health and prosperity for the family.
I love my mummy!! :P
2nd family photo together! :)Next, we went on to the 2nd temple, Kiyomizu Temple.
Personally I feel it's much nicer than the first one, probably coz of the better weather during the later part of the day, and there were also many people, because of the little old street leading up to the temple. It's similar to Taiwan's Jiu Fen, the old street, that sells all nooks and cranny. Pretty interesting stuff to buy :)
We managed to get alot of nice photos taken with the bright pink cherry blossoms while waiting for the Geisha, which the tour company paid to take photos with us, to slowly strut her way up.
It was a pity that I can't get to take a real close-up shot on the details of her head gear, her kimono and face makeup, coz there were 30+ of us and alot of the aunties were actually pretty rude in snatching to take photos with her. Got quite irritated and decided not to. Bah.
In this temple, there are 2 'Love Stones' which are 18m apart. It was believed that if you can close your eyes and walk from one stone to the other and stop exactly where the other stone is, you will have a blessed love life and smooth relationship. See the numerous wooden tablets hanging there? Many Japanese people, be it young or old, believed that by praying here, it seems like their relationship will be much better.
I wanted to try walking but there were too many people around, so I gave up. I actually kicked the 2 rocks when I was browsing the tablets. I wonder if that helps? *winkz* :P
We actually saw many such vending machines around since Day 1.
I really admire Japanese' innovation because they can put everything under the sun into the vending machine. Heard there's vending machines selling newspapers, cigarettes, condoms and even CDs! I love it that they can have both hot and cold bottled coffee and tea. Especially refreshing when the weather is cold and you down a bottle of hot royal milk tea. Yummy!! :P
Next up: Day 3 of the trip where I get to see Mt Fuji from afar! More updates soon!
P/S: You can view more of Day 2 pictures on my Facebook.
Personally I feel it's much nicer than the first one, probably coz of the better weather during the later part of the day, and there were also many people, because of the little old street leading up to the temple. It's similar to Taiwan's Jiu Fen, the old street, that sells all nooks and cranny. Pretty interesting stuff to buy :)
We managed to get alot of nice photos taken with the bright pink cherry blossoms while waiting for the Geisha, which the tour company paid to take photos with us, to slowly strut her way up.
It was a pity that I can't get to take a real close-up shot on the details of her head gear, her kimono and face makeup, coz there were 30+ of us and alot of the aunties were actually pretty rude in snatching to take photos with her. Got quite irritated and decided not to. Bah.
In this temple, there are 2 'Love Stones' which are 18m apart. It was believed that if you can close your eyes and walk from one stone to the other and stop exactly where the other stone is, you will have a blessed love life and smooth relationship. See the numerous wooden tablets hanging there? Many Japanese people, be it young or old, believed that by praying here, it seems like their relationship will be much better.I wanted to try walking but there were too many people around, so I gave up. I actually kicked the 2 rocks when I was browsing the tablets. I wonder if that helps? *winkz* :P
We actually saw many such vending machines around since Day 1.I really admire Japanese' innovation because they can put everything under the sun into the vending machine. Heard there's vending machines selling newspapers, cigarettes, condoms and even CDs! I love it that they can have both hot and cold bottled coffee and tea. Especially refreshing when the weather is cold and you down a bottle of hot royal milk tea. Yummy!! :P
Next up: Day 3 of the trip where I get to see Mt Fuji from afar! More updates soon!
P/S: You can view more of Day 2 pictures on my Facebook.
Labels: family, holiday, Japan