Officially: Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara
Time: Late September, 2012
Place: Nara, Japan
Nara was the capital of Japan just before Kyoto, so naturally, the place was bound to have a lot of visitors. I decided to take one of the first trains out in the morning from Osaka and arrived in Nara before they even opened, at 8am. I was hoping to beat the crowds, but wasn’t allowed in right away and when I was, there was already a huge crowd of school children and eager tourists waiting. While I did photograph the far more famous Todai Temple (the largest wooden structure in the world), the side structures were equally as interesting. Coming out early definitely gave me the freedom to explore at my own pace.
As I crossed one of the many gates on the eastern side of Nara, I turned to my left and took this shot. I didn’t notice at the time, but I had a huge smudge on the middle right of my lens which I didn’t catch until much later. While I feel that the majority of my pictures after that are terrible, for some reason, I really like how this one turned out. The lanterns on both sides of the small stream are beautiful, but different, and the ceiling makes it look like the temple goes on forever.
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