Norimasu-ing in Nara

I went to Nara the other day with my friend Izumi. We rented bicycles (*groan*) and rode around, looking at temples and whatnot. Basically, Nara is a veritable hotbed of giant Buddha statues- that was my impression, anyways. We also saw "Daigokuden", which is (wait for it) a currently under-construction replica of the former Imperial Palace. Yep, basically, a bunch of scaffolding over a wooden frame. But we dutifully lined up with everyone else and slowly toured the place, snapping pictures of the scaffolding, "ii, ne"-ing where appropriate. The most interesting part was the workers, probably still in-training, painstakingly shaving down the beams for the replica palace using old style tools. Mmm, woody-smelling.