Day 2- Nara

I started the day by waking up very early! This ended up working out very nicely because I was able to organize myself and prepare for the day. I was very excited to visit Nara! When I got there, I was overtaken about the beauty of Nara. I was hard to believe I was standing in Japan. The groups first stop was the Todaiji temple. This temple is the worlds largest wooden building. The next stop was the Kasuga Taisha shrine. From visiting these two places, I noticed many differences between temples and shrines. This was very different because, in the United States, we do not have many temples and shrines. Shrines had many bells that people would ring to call God’s. Shrines also had many torli, which is a gate between this world and the world of the Gods. I really enjoyed going to see the shrines and learned what they represented.

I enjoyed learning about the chozuya were you purify yourself before entering the main shrine. There were strict steps in how you purify yourself. First, you pour water onto your left hand and switch to purify your right. After your hands are clean, you fill your right hand with water and drink the water. The process felt odd at first but soon became very cleansing. I enjoy going through this process and purifying myself.