Kasuga Taisha shrine

A statue above the purification fountain honors the hungry sacred deer of Nara

Some of the many stone lanterns on the way up to the shrine

Kasuga Taisha's main hall

Bronze lanterns decorate the sides of the buildings. There are about 1000 of them.

More stone lanterns... There are really several hundreds of these in the shrine.

Todaiji Temple

The head of a Shinkansen train at Odawara Station (Hakone.)

One of the carved giants, the Nio, at the temple's main gate.

This stylized flower, which appears at many temples and shrines throughout the country, is the emperor's crest.

Todaiji Temple's main hall, Daibutsu-den, is the largest wooden building in the world.

A closer look at the main hall's architecture

Golden statue of Kannon, to the Great Buddha's left.

From the picture you can't really tell this is the largest bronze Buddha in the world, but every finger is about as high as a regular adult human.

Wooden statue of the Guardian King of the South, inside the main hall

Going through the nostril-sized hole

The great Buddha, seen from a different angle

When you aren't carrying any food, the deer will let you do pretty much anything to them.

Steve feeding the deer, before they got a little too excited

Beware of Bambi

The next morning were dropped at the Hakone train station for our first trip via Shinkansen to Kyoto. Shinkansen are the Japanese bullet trains and we were lucky to have been able to catch ours at a local station. If we had caught it at a terminal station, like Tokyo, we would have never been able to witness the Shinkansen’s full speed from the outside. We weren’t able to photograph or catch on film the first train that passed the station without stopping, but we were better prepared for the second one. What speed! There are actually three different kinds of Shinkansen: from slower to faster, they’re the Kodama, the Hikari and the Nozomi, but I was told their speed difference is mostly based on the number of stops they make.

The interior of the trains is nice and comfortable and there’s a lot more leg room than what you get on the tour buses. The Hikari from Hakone in the east to Kyoto in the west took about three hours, stopping at eleven stations, and we had the chance to get a better look at Honshu’s island landscape. Of course, Mt. Fuji stayed hidden behind the haze when we passed it, but there were plenty of other mountains, towns and rice fields to look at.

After arriving in Kyoto, we only had enough time for a quick lunch before getting on the bus to Nara. Only 30 minutes by bus from Kyoto, Nara was the first real imperial capital, back in the 8th century, and it’s still a highly popular destination thanks to housing the largest bronze Buddha statue and its famous deer park. The Buddha statue is housed at Todaiji temple and, to get there, you must first pass a few dozens of adorable deer that wonder around looking for tourists with food. After making it safely through the deer – and soon you’ll understand why I’m saying this – you arrive at Nandai-mon, a huge gate with two enormous wooden statues, a bit of larger version of the guards at Omote-mon, in Nikko.

Keep walking past the gate and you’ll come to the main hall of the temple, Daibutsu-den, which is the largest wooden structure in the world, and only two-thirds of the size of the original building. As with most temples and castles in Japan, this one has been consumed by fire and rebuilt several times. The present building was erected in 1709. If the hall itself is amazing in its size and architecture, the Buddha statue, at 16 meters tall, is awe-inspiring. The hole in one of its nostrils is big enough to fit a small human. We know this because they have made a hole at the bottom of one of the columns supporting the temple. That hole is the same size of the nostril and it is said that if you can squeeze though it, you can go to paradise. We saw actually a lot of children and even adult women go through it. I guess this means there are some advantages to being small, after all!

On our way back to the bus Steve decided to feed the deer. As soon as we approached the vendor to buy some deer crackers, we were surrounded by about twelve Bambi-like creatures, some of them with horns. They aren’t shy, and in the next 15 minutes I did my best to capture on photos and tape the way Steve was chased all around the area by numerous animals. Many pushed him, more than a couple bit him and at least one managed to get through the clothes. I am not kidding. They are greedy monsters. They made at least one little kid cry.

We eventually managed to get back on the bus – when the food was over – and rode to the nearby Kasuga Taisha shrine. I must say that by then we had seen quite a few temples and shrines on this Japan trip alone (not to mention all that we’ve seen in Singapore, Thailand and China), and the novelty was wearing off fast. What set this Shinto shrine apart from others was the fact that it was tucked away on a hill in the woods, and featured hundreds of stone lanterns, which play an important part in religious festivals. That, and more “sacred” deer. Steve insisted on getting more deer food, but this time he passed the crackers to me. Luckily, these deer were relatively more behaved than the ones at Todaiji and all they did was follow me around and nudge and push insistently. Oh, and one of them bit my shirt.

The bus dropped us back at the hotel right before it started pouring. Even though the weather had been funny for a few days, this was the first time it actually rained, so we ended up having dinner at the hotel and going to sleep early.

Hakone

The moody atmosphere of Lake Ashi on a very cloudy day... the passengers, however, were still pretty excited to be there.

One aspect of the lakeside, with a temple perched on it

The gondola we were supposed to take up, seen from Lake Ashi. Since it was so windy, we ended up walking around the souvenir shops, before taking the bus to a different gondola.

Going down the gondola to Hakone; the fog is the most visible thing.

A detail of the sulfur mines, seen from above

Another view from the gondola, closer to the town

Fuji-san

The top of Mt. Fuji seen from the road going up. There is barely any snow left in August.

Mt. Fuji cakes... with smiley faces, of course!

The inside of the Shinto shrine at the fifth station

A smaller shrine to the mountain. The geta (sandals) you see are based on real ones... They make them with one heel only for walking uphill (really!)

The interior of the smaller shrine, with its Tengu (mountain deities) -like figures

Squid kebabs (or yakitori, as they say in Japan) are a popular snack.

A walking trail around the fifth station

After numerous attempts, this was the best shot of Mt. Fuji we could get.

To see what the perfectly symmetrical mountain looks like on a clear day, go here. Or, check out the famous woodblock prints.

Up the mountains we go

In the morning we said goodbye to Tokyo the weather was hot and sunny, which was very promising, since we were going to see the elusive Mount Fuji. It all went well until we were almost there, trying to snap partial pictures of it when we could, but certain that we’d get to get much better photos once we arrived to our destination. It turned out that by the time we got to the fifth station, which is halfway up the mountain, it was extremely cloudy and we couldn’t see much, let alone take any pictures!

We later learned that summer is actually the worst time to see Mt. Fuji because it’s the haziest time of the year! The Japanese make it a game of trying to spot the mountain, when you’re passing by it on the train. It’s like the lottery, really; some days it’s visible in all its glory and some other days you can’t glimpse it at all. As a coincidence, summer is actually the only time where there is no snow at the top of the mountain, but at the time we were there we could still see the tiniest sliver of white. All in all, it’s an amazing mountain, with a very elegant shape, and its elusiveness only makes it more attractive.

From Mt. Fuji, we proceeded to Hakone, a popular thermal area on top of the mountains. It was one of the first “vacation spots” in Japan, as the shogun would go there from Edo (Tokyo) to soak himself in the hot springs. Nowadays it’s still a well-known tourist spot for Japanese, famous for its hot springs; I’d actually say it’s a little too touristy: besides a ton of souvenir shops, there is a museum for Meissen porcelain, from Germany, and another one based on the Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. We took a short cruise on Lake Ashi (aka Ashino), which is usually a great way of seeing Mount Fuji from the nearby mountains, but the weather had definitely changed for the worse and we couldn’t even see the top of the smaller mountains around us. Still, it made for a very scenic view of the lake.

Finally, we were supposed to take a gondola up one of the mountains, but it was so windy that they had to close it. So we rode to the top of another mountain and took a different gondola down, instead. On the trip down, we could see the sulfur mines below us. After that the tour was over for the day and they dropped us at our hotel. It was supposed to have some kind hot springs in it, but as it turned out it only had the typical Japanese communal baths. As there were no restaurants or other places around, we ate at the hotel, in a little sushi place they had, which was the most affordable option, but all we could get for $30 was four pieces of sushi each. So, before bedtime, we made a little trip to the inevitable convenience store and got something else to eat…

Nikko

The five-story pagoda stands between Rinnonji temple and the Toshogu shrine.

One of the giant guards on the sides of Omote-mon gate

A view of the courtyard past Omote-mon gate

Unlike the other buildings, the monkey carvings in Shinkyusha (the shrine's stable) are the only part of it that's painted.

The most famous carving in Shinkyusha: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

The bronze torii and, behind it, Yomei-mon gate, sided by the smaller drum and bell towers

Yomei-mon gate is the most ornate building in the whole shrine.

A detail of the carvings on Yomei-mon gate

A lateral altar in the main courtyard

The bronze torii, the inevitable souvenir stall and the stable, seen from Yomei-mon gate

The wooden torii gate sets the boundaries of Toshogu shrine.

Buddhist priests and priestesses at the entrance to Rinnonji temple

An interesting presentation for lunch: the tempura veggies are clearly seen, while the tofu, the miso and the udon noodles are "hidden" in the containers.

A view of lake Chuzenji

The Kegon waterfall