One would think we would have enough of temples
and shrines from the long walk in Kyoto, but today we’re taking a side trip to
Nara for the day. We'll take a train Kintetsu Railways which connects Kyoto to Nara. Nara was the first
capital of Japan, and today is one of the only areas to have a large concentration of ancient Shinto and Buddhist temples. The only temple we’ll be going to is the famous Todai-ji
Temple, which is a short walk from the station. This temple has one of the
largest and oldest wooden gates and also has the largest Buddha in the
country. The parks such as Nara Park and
Isuien Garden, which are around the temple are also must see sites. This is due to the abundance of deer and fawn
there. In Japanese culture, deers are
looked as messengers of god, thus these deer became the symbol for Nara.
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| Picture Descriptions: Largest Buddha statue named Daibutsu, Deer found around Nara, Entrance to Todai-ji Temple |
Since Nara is so close to Kyoto, we will head back
to Kyoto in the afternoon. This allows
us some great time to head to Kyoto’s International Manga Museum!! (Do I need to
give a reason for going there? I think
it’s pretty self-explanatory now). The museum
holds over 300 000 items in its collection, and even showcases some magazines
and books from the Meiji Period! So while holding many manga that satisfy our
contemporary interests, we can also learn about the history of the creation of
one our favourite past times, at the museum. What’s
more amazing is that vistor can actually read any one of the mangas or
magazines they like!
Some of the museum’s highlights is the historical
manga collection titled Japan Punch. It
was by Charles Wirgman and ran from year Bunkyu 2 (1862) to Meiji 20
(1887). We can also see Japan’s first
every manga magazine, Eshinbun Nihonchi, which was first published in
1874. Another great manga magazine in
Tokyu Pakky which is published in 1907, and it was Japan’s first children’s
manga. There is also a small portion of
the meseum for forgein or translated mangas.
The entrance fee for this museum is 800 yen (9.50 CAD) per adult.
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| Top: Entrance to the Museum Bottom: Bookshelves filled with manga, visitors reading the manga
Images: Google Images
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7:25 PM |
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