The temple itself has both the stone lanterns and these beautiful hanging lanterns that gave me all sorts of interior decorating ideas. As I mentioned before, this is a Shinto shrine, whereas most other temples in Nara are Buddhist, which became hugely popular in Japan while Nara was capital. I'm a big fan of Buddhism, so I think it's natural that it should win such a big following, but it must be said that Shinto is a pretty easy religion to beat. First, they worship the emperor, and I'm not going there again. Second, they had that stupid rule about destroying capitals and moving every time the emperor died, which I'm sure thrilled the people forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods and start building from scratch over and over. Third, they have another awful rule that all their temples need to be destroyed and completely rebuilt every 20 years. This temple has been completely rebuilt over 50 times, although mercifully they stopped here in 1893. Putting aside the huge expense wasted constantly rebuilding and destroying things, it also is a bit of a killjoy for tourists. You'll go to a beautifully situated temple, and learn all these special things about it, and then learn it was last rebuilt in the 1980's or something. I think Shinto was founded by the carpenters' union.

After lunch, we walked deep into the forest to get to our next temple, Kasuga Taisha, which I think is the coolest of the bunch although quite out of the way. There are lots of windy paths through the forest that eventually will take you here, but once you get anywhere near the place, the path is lined with thousands of stone lanterns, which is a really striking sight. The temple itself has lots more lanterns inside, as you'll see, and twice a year, it has a lantern festival where all the walkway and temple lanterns are lit, which must take forever. It's a Shinto temple, built by the powerful Fujiwara family as their family temple when Nara was capital.