Nara is a small town. The reason for my visit to this small town is merely due to the available of Youth Hostal. Some attractions in the neighbourhood, like Mt. Miminashi, waterfall, climbing to Odaigahara, sounds attractive to me.

It turned out to be the best stop during the whole trip in Japan. There are well maintained nature walk leading towards the hillside. The nature walk is built by the local government to promote tourism and the love of nature. The path along 20KM walk are all very well maintained. No any rugged road at all. I made a wrong turn in part of the road. Or else, I could have save 1 hour in this journey.

Most of the paths are built along the hill foot. With the pleasant weather of 22c, there is no sweat at all after 20KM walk. The only sweat I have is when I tried to race with the time to reach the finish line by sunset at 5:30PM in last 3KM walk. It would not be fun if I am still in the hill side alone without any weapon, torch light nor mobile phone. And it does not have street light on the hillside....

My camera battery is out. So, I could not capture the gorgeous persimmons trees standing in the middle of golden waves of rice field. The hill are covered with dark green of pine tree. The landscape are neatly constructed with vegetable farms. It was really pleasant to walk across the small village. The breeze makes the walk enjoyable.

After 6 hours walk in the hillside, I walked pass by an area with a few huge shrines. This shrine was different from other shrines that I saw because it was pretty new and I could see people went into the shrine and prayer. The Shrine was so huge. This building is equivalent to 20 tennis court fields.

Out of curiosity , I took out my shoes and walked up 20 steps staircase. Right in fron of the entrance, I could hear the song from some ladies. It sounds haramony. Then, I realizes that they are actually praying. People was sitting around the center of the shrine. Some entered from the south. Some entered from the North. There were some staff standing on the entrance to observe the prayer. What they are worshipping? Do they only come to worship at this hour? I don't know. People all sitting on the floor, neatly cover with the strew mattress. There is no any smoke nor idol in the shrine. What I see is a few candles lighting in the center. I just sat quietly close by the wall to observe their worship.

After a while, I stepped out and walked toward the inner shrine in next building. I looked back to the next building, the dusk was around the roof corner. The silhouette was lighting up the sky. I suddently felt an unusual quietness. And it was a good way to end a day.