Chasing the Sun in Nara

A Glimpse of Nandaimon, the Gate to Todai-ji Compound

Holidays are usually a time that people use to decouple themselves from the stress of work and reconnect with things they love; this often involves sleeping in and waking up whenever their bodies want. But when that thing you love is related to outdoor photography in which the weather plays an important factor in deciding when and where to go, your day can in fact start in a more challenging way than your usual weekday routines. This is exactly what happened to James and I on the day we took a day trip from Kyoto – Japan’s capital for more than 1,000 years until it moved to Tokyo – to Nara, another ancient capital of the country some 40 kilometers south of Kyoto.

The problem was the weather in Nara throughout our stay in Japan was forecast to be mostly cloudy…