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by nn_77
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Time Travel to Ancient Japan

In the morning I joined in a tennis club lesson and found I haven’t made any progress since last time… After all, I’m a terrible athlete. I knew it! (>_<) Anyway, I’ve gotta try to improve my form of stroke!

In the afternoon my wife and I had a drive to Nara prefecture. Nara was Japan’s political center from the 6th to 8th centuries, when Buddhism was introduce from overseas. Nara is therefore dotted with many historic temples and you can also see a lot of ….
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Deer!

Deer in Nara is designated as national natural treasure and they are left free here and there in Nara Park.
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I enjoyed visiting Todaiji temple,
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and the five-story pagoda of Kofukuji-temple.
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Todaiji temple is famous for its giant statute of Buddha. But we didn’t have a time to see it, because we had to hurry to the venue of…
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Takigi-Noh, or the traditional Noh-plays put on outdoors with light supplied by bonfires.

Noh play is representative traditional performing arts of Japan, which is now designated in the list of UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The form of noh play is said to have been preserving its original style for over 600 years, which may well be called the oldest existing theatrical art in the world.
We enjoyed the Takigi-Noh in the evening. In the small forest garden nearby the five-story pagoda of Kofukuji-temple was the stage which was illuminated with balefire.
On the stage the players in traditional kimono performed wearing a mask, dancing to traditional singing poems with the music played by Japanese traditional instruments.
Although the players’ ancient manner of speech was difficult for us to understand, the subtle and yet profound air made us feel as if we slipped back in time to the ancient Nara era.
They didn’t allow the audience to take a picture during the performance. So, I can only show you how the stage was like.
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Among the audience were some foreigners. I hope people in the world will have deeper understanding about Japanese culture by actually touching such traditional things as this.
And I felt I have to touch them myself at times, so that I can introduce more about Japan to the world when I have such a chance someday in the future.
by nn_77 | 2007-05-12 00:45 | Travel