In ogni tempio incontriamo questi foglietti annodati a dei fili di metallo. Svolazzano, mossi dall’aria afosa del pomeriggio. Ognuno di questi foglietti contiene un messaggio rivolta al futuro. Una richiesta di buona fortuna lasciato agli spiriti che abitano questo parco e questi templi.
This week I am going to write in Italian. It has been too long since I last wrote using my mother tongue.
Passano le ore. Una dopo l’altra. Lente. Siamo nel mezzo dell’estate. Un caldo umido che stanca. Il tempo rallenta. Se la prende comoda. Non c’è nessuna fretta.
Continuiamo la nostra esplorazione dei tempi di Nara. Il suono delle cicale. I raggi di sole attraversano il fogliame spesso di questo parco.
La luce non è quella giusta per fare foto. È troppo presto nel pomeriggio. Il contrasto tra zone di luce ed ombra è molto forte e la macchina fotografia fatica a trovare l’esposizione giusta.
Mancano diverse ore al tramonto quando la luce sarà quella giusta, ma non possiamo rimanere qui. Dobbiamo tornare all’ostello per riposare prima di uscire di nuovo per la cena.
I remember large and small temples. Some are hidden in the dry forest. It had not rained for quite some time. The wooden shape of some temples was challenging to see through branches and bushes.
Sometimes a temple would appear. A simple but elegant wooden construction. A bit out of the way from the trail of the famous ones.
Nobody was around. It was quiet and still. We left the shoes at the steps of the entrance. We walked on the polished wood. The noise of the summer also disappeared around us. A warm wind passed through the open halls.
Silence
We enter the vast hall. It takes a few seconds to adjust the eyesight from the string sunlight to the hall’s shadows. It is like the Great Buddha statue emerges from the shadow, gaining details as the eyesight adjusts to the light inside the hall.
The first thing that emerges is the huge hand that points to the entrance. Then some the details fo the face and the peaceful expression.
The hand symbolises peace, benevolence, protection and defeat of fear.
People stand in front of the star. The hands are placed together, holding incense sticks. They pray with closed eyes and bow their heads.
I look at the people. Follow their movements. Look up to the Buddha. This is a special place. There is energy. There is peacefulness. There are the thoughts, feelings, and prayers of the many, many, many people who have come here for a moment for themselves and in themselves over a very long time.
I am happy to be here.
Nara is one of the old capitals of Japan. An imperial city with ancient palaces and temples.
One morning we went to the Tōdai-ji temple (Eastern Great Temple). This is a Buddhist temple complex originally founded in the year 738 CE. The temple has undergone several reconstructions since then, with the most significant reconstruction taking place in 1709 with that of the Great Buddha Hall which houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana.
It was easy to travel by bus in Nara. We got printed maps from the Tourism Office. They were written in Japanese end English.
At the bus stop, people would help with directions and pointing to the right bus to jump on.
The bus drivers were in uniform and wore white gloves. They greeted the passenger entering the front door.
The a/c was usually at full blast inside the bus and gave me chills when entering.
We were at a bus stop waiting for a bus. There was a blockhouse on the other side of the street—just three floors. On the second floor was a large window with a row of books.
I always thought it was the window of the studio of an architect. I imagined the room on the other side of the window. The room is small but enough for one person to work comfortably. A large, slightly inclined desk with a large piece of paper and initial sketches of a new house. Somebody’s new home.
A small kitchen corner with a filter coffee machine. A microwave end small rice cooker. An armchair and net to it a design standing lamp. Next to it is a simple wooden shelf with a small hi-fi system and a pile of CDs. The radio is on.
We walked in a quiet neighbourhood near the YouthHostel we stayed. We were looking for a supermarket. The roads were more like lanes. Too narrow for a car. It was early afternoon and everyone was sheltering in their homes.
It was hot and humid. The cicadas and the silence of the streets.
I will continue to stay in Japan this coming week. We were there in August 2011. I go through those images on my computer. I select the ones I want to share. I edit them to black and white.
Sometimes I am in doubt. Should I keep the original image’s colour or change it back and white? My memories are in colour. They accompany the sound of people talking to each other. The cicadas were hidden in the trees and singing in the heat of the summer.
Is it ok to mix colour photographs with black and white ones?
This week: I am moving from Osaka to Nara: the city of temples.
Wikipedia says: “Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture. It is the sixth-largest city in the Kansai region. Nara was the capital of Japan during the Nara period from 710 to 794 as the seat of the Emperor before the capital was moved to Kyoto.”
The afternoon was turning into the early evening.
We sat on a bench and looked at the castle’s wall. I remember hearing the sound of the sparrows flying above us. I looked up. It was the sign that the evening was beginning and that we had to head back to our ryokan and rest a bit before going out again and looking for a place to have dinner.
