That’s Japan, ancient and modern, in a nutshell. I lingered here unhurried, because I knew Japanese Railways would deliver me: Nara 10.00 to Kyoto, then 10.56 Shinkansen “bullet train” 514 kms to Tokyo in little over two hours (13.13), change to local train arriving Ueno station 13.21 for onstage rehearsal at 13.35. Very Zen, and in its way more spiritual than most of the temples.Īnd here’s another thing. The beautiful co-mingling of interior and exterior, the simplicity and efficiency of design. Which made the visit to this old merchant’s house, alone at opening time the next morning, all the more poignant. Staggering stuff, and I revived sufficiently to enjoy it in the company of many hundreds of others. Nara’s main draw though is Todai-ji temple – still one of the biggest wooden structures on Earth, housing an immense bronze Buddha, or Daibatsu, cast in AD 752. I had been almost templed out in our one short break of two days, having visited many of the gorgeous temples of Kyoto beforehand. Nara is famous for its ancient Buddhist temples in parkland roamed by sacred shika deer. Tsukimi means ‘moon viewing’, originating from that time, and celebrates the September harvest moon by displaying decorations made from Japanese pampas grass( susuki) and eating rice dumplings – dango – to celebrate the beauty of the moon. Shūbun no Hi 秋分の日 is a public holiday in Japan – as is the vernal equinox – and there is much from 18 days there that I could have used equinoctially, but choose this quite humble picture of a Tsukimi display, taken in Nara, briefly the first capital of Japan in the 8th century. We had just performed the thrilling opening sequence of Verdi’s Otello in Tokyo at the moment of equinox – in the UK it was breakfast time (08.50 BST). Autumn equinox 2019 coincided with my last day with the Royal Operaon tour in Japan.
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