We made the day trip from Kyoto to Nara to check out Tōdai-ji and its celebrated Great Buddha. It really is a bloody big Buddha, and it is housed in the largest wooden building in the world along with assorted scary statues, one of which is rather incongruously holding a calligraphy scroll and brush. We also couldn’t resist contributing ¥1000 to the temple restoration fund, seeing as we got to inscribe our own tile and, apparently, gain eternal happiness.