And there's quite the view from the top. The picture to the left was taken from the highest level. The building you
see is the main hall which contains the big Buddha. Big is something of an under-statement. It's actually the largest
cast-metal statue in the world at around 17m in height. Sorry, but the pictures just don't do it justice.
The rest of the hall is filled with more statues. Each are around 1m tall, there's more than 1200 of them completely
covering 3 of the 4 walls from floor to ceiling. It's pretty stunning to see.
At the entrance to many temples, 2 guardians stand watch. There was also a pretty funky fountain in the courtyard.
So why isn't this great temple very well known? It has no history. It was built by a local millionare sometime in the 80's.
By contrast, we have the city of Nara. Nara has one of Japan's biggest attractions - another big buddha.
The temple also has another set of the guardians at the entrance. This 1000 year old statue is made of wood. It
represents one of the Shinto Dieties. If you notice the pen and scroll, this guy is a record keeper of sorts. His
job is to write down all the bad things that everyone does in their lifetime. Definitely a full time job.
Nara also has a large park with a few thousand deer roaming around. They're quite friendly, unless they think that you aren't feeding them fast enough. If that's the case, they'll start searching through your pockets whether you want them to or not. The impatient one standing behind Sue has just started to tug on her shorts.
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