Today started with early ceremonies at the temple. First there was a prayer service at 7am, followed by a very interesting fire burning ceremony at a building up the street at 7:30am. Prior to the fire burning ceremony, we had written wishes for health and prosperity for our family and friends on wooden sticks, and gave them to the monk to burn at the ceremony. Hopefully our wishes will come true!

By the time we returned to our room (it was BITTER COLD outside again), our tofu-rich breakfast had magically appeared on the floor of our room. We ate and checked out of the Ekoin. A few minutes later the bus came by to take us back to Koyasan Station from where we would take the cable car back down the mountain to civilization.

We hopped on a train from Gokurakubashi that took us to Hashimoto. Our ticket did not cover a limited express train, and there wasn't one running for a few hours anyway, so we were fine with the brief stop. At Hashimoto we hopped on a train to Shin-Imamiya, and from there we found the JR line to take us to our destination for the afternoon -- Nara. Today was also the final day of validity on our JR Pass -- sad because it means our trip is progressing and actually nearing its end :(.

Nara is an ancient city that is a place where significant fusion between Chinese and Japanese traditions has occurred. In the past, it was known as one of Asia's most splendid cities. Today it is revered as the birthplace of modern Japanese culture, and it celebrated its 1,300th anniversary in 2010. Upon arriving at the station, we stopped in at the tourist office and learned of a shuttle bus that goes to the major sites. It would have been about a 20 minute walk, but given the cold and our achy feet, we decided to bus it. First we stopped for some sweets at the self-serve bakery at the train station -- definitely becoming a tradition!

We got off the bus and walked toward Nara's most famous site -- the huge Todaiji Temple Complex. We saw deer. Deer were everywhere! More deer than we saw at Miyajima. These deer were even less afraid of people -- walking into traffic and acting very tame. Despite this, the deer looked a little less straggly than those at Miyajima. Taking pictures of Japanese children with the deer is clearly a favorite among their parents -- we admit to taking a few similar pictures ourselves!

Todaji is a world heritage site that consists of the Great Buddha Hall (Diabutsuden) and numerous other subtemples and halls. This Diabutsuden is also the largest wooden structure in the world! Unfortunately it has burned down and been rebuilt several times A building that big is needed to house the Buddha which was larger than the one at Kamakura -- in fact it is the largest bronze image of Buddha in the world at 53 feet.

We enjoyed walking through the hall and around it as well. Probably the most beautiful fall foliage we had seen to date was found on the temple grounds, and we spent a good bit of time walking the paths soaking in the sites, despite the cold. The foliage looked all the more spectacular with the deer prancing through the trees.

Nara Park is huge, and after Todaiji we made the walk to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine -- a very photogenic shrine at the southern end of the park. According to Shinto beliefs governing renewal and purity, the shrine is demolished and rebuilt every 20 years -- and this process has been repeated around 60 times over the centuries!

There is a lot more to see in Nara and on its outskirts. In hindsight, we wish we had spent the night here so we could see more and do more shopping. However, we needed to get back to Kyoto for the evening, so after visiting the shrine we headed back to the bus stop to get back to the JR Station. From there, it was a quick train ride (less than 1 hour) back to Kyoto.

We spent the evening relaxing in Kyoto and catching up on some stuff. Our final 2 full days were ahead of us, and this was our chance to continue seeing all that Kyoto had to offer.