Temples and Buddha

Today we first visited the Golden Pavilion. It was a beautiful three story temple with golden walls. The first level is made of wood and and is still used for worship today. The temple was surrounded by a large lake with huge koi fish in it. Next we went to Nijo Castle which was the Shogun's palace and residence. It was the biggest living quarters I have ever seen, and we learned some really amazing things about it. We learned that in the Shoguns meeting area there were two hidden doors where samurais would hide just in case one of the visitors tried to attack the Shogun. We saw many drawings of peacocks all throughout the castle and that is because peacocks eat snakes and snakes represent evil. So the peacocks represented keeping evil out of the Shoguns Castle. Also the floors were purposely designed to squeak so the Shogun would always know of intruders. Lastly we visited the Todai-ji Temple. The temple grounds are surrounded a park like area filled with deer. These deer were similar to our pigeons so they were very friendly. They would follow you and eat from your hand! But the most amazing thing about them is that they were there to protect the temple from intruders. The Todai-ji temple was one of the most amazing places I have ever visited! The temple is the largest wooden building in the world and inside the temple was a 600 year old Buddha sculpture. This buddha was breathtaking because of its overwhelming size. He and the other surrounding figures were gigantic but still so detailed and artistic. But what was really interesting was that the Buddha was built in five years and its head fell off 400 years ago but was added back on. Today was truly beautiful because of all the temples and castles. The scenery was beautiful and will stick with me forever.