The thousand cherry blossoms in the Yoshino region feel almost like a Buddhist paradise.
I had really wanted to visit this year, but I ended up coming about five days too late. The petals had already fallen, and the trees were just starting to leaf out.
Instead, I came here and was still able to take in a few beautiful scenes—and the Buddhas, of course. Since Yoshino itself wasn’t an option this time, it felt like a quiet alternative.
This month’s special exhibition focuses on more hidden rituals and the seasonal life of the mountains.
Wonderful experience.
This charming art museum is a wonderful place to explore Japanese Buddhist art, with an entrance fee equivalent to C$10. Founded back in 1889, it beautifully preserves its original architecture and houses an impressive permanent collection, including Buddhist statues, paintings and scrolls. During our visit to Nara Park, we only admired the museum from the outside, but its lovely exterior makes it a true landmark in the park that you won't want to miss. Although we didn't get a chance to go inside, the building itself is quite picturesque and inviting.
Regular exhibition was completely overcrowded on a regular Wednesday. Special exhibition was fine. They would benefit from enforcing online only sales for crowd control purposes.
The exhibition is wonderful, but I think there's still room for improvement in how the exhibits are displayed.
Very educational and insightful experience learning about Buddhism. The variety of historical artefacts were very fascinating to view and learn about. Just a note that the museum is not about the history and development of Nara itself, but rather about different periods of Buddhism in Japan. The museum was quite crowded, so I think that crowd management could have been improved. Was overall still an insightful afternoon and would recommend if you want to learn more about Buddhism
