Nata-dera
My host parents took me out on the third weekend. We took a very long drive through beautiful hills and countryside (listening to a CD of American pop songs played on panflute on the way… very bizarre). We stopped for lunch at a roadside ramen shop, where we were given *enormous* portions… and I wasn’t even that hungry to begin with… but I ate until I was bursting at the sides. Then we left for an old temple called Nata-dera.
Nata-dera was a very large temple with beautiful, old architecture. It was a huge complex that consisted of many buildings, all linked together along a wide stone walkway. Unfortunately it was pouring rain the whole time, but it was a lot of fun anyway.
The temple had many different shrines and covered the area of a large park. One of them was a large rock (I’d call it a tiny mountain) with little shrines carved into it, overlooking a beautiful pond. We visited well as a number of large wooden buildings built into the rock, and my parents made offerings. There were freestanding wooden buildings in other parts of the complex, and since this temple was in the mountains, the buildings up on hills gave incredibly beautiful views of the whole area. There was also a very large, brand new temple with a gigantic many-armed buddha inside (I wasn’t allowed to take photos in there). Finally, we visited the gift shop/museum area that was once a functioning part of the temple as well. Aside from various souveniers, this building had an old Japanese taxi (a tiny little box with handles… it’s amazing anyone could have fit inside of it) and a wall-sized cloth map of ancient Japan.
The rain actually added to the beauty of the temple, as there were frogs jumping around, and everything was shinier and more vivid.
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| The Yamamiyas pose in front of the door | My turn | This large rock had many caves with shrines inside |
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| We head up a mountain into a shrine | Shinto shrines are marked by torii | One of the ponds near the shrine |
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| One of the shrine guardians | Just a nature shot | My host parents underneath a 300-year old building |
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| This is a long, bending red bridge, or can’t you tell? | Another view of the shrines | The long highway from the gate to the shrines |
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| This is a brand new Buddhist temple at the site | ||
After the temple, we went to a glassworks shop. I think my parents told me it was the largest (if not, one of the largest) glass centers in Japan. It was made out to look like a little German village, and even had German writing above the buildings… sort of a Bavarian feel to it. There were a few buildings, and I’d say there was as much floor space here as in a Wal-Mart… all selling glass items, expensive vases, gems… it would have made a king drool.
After that we drove home, and stopped at a wal-mart type store on the way home… you know; the kind of store that sells a little bit of everything so it’s hard to classify. We got some batteries and toilet paper, and then went back home for dinner (and more ridiculous Japanese tv 
).