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Tetsubin (鉄瓶) are Japanese cast iron pots for boiling and pouring hot water mainly to make tea. They range widely in size, shape and color.

Not sure exactly when the tetsubin first appeared in Japan, but it is suggested a close relationship with the rise of the sencha-drinking (煎茶; using tea leaves instead of powdered tea). Sencha was introduced to Japan from China around the middle of the 17th century. Sencha was not considered as a formal "cha-no-yu" (茶の湯; tea ceremony), but probably introduced as a part of medicinal herbs intake. During the 18th century, sencha became more and more an informal setting for sharing a cup of tea with family and friends. Therefore, Tetsubin became an ordinary household utensil used to heat water, prepare tea and even create warmth during wintertime.

People also say that the hot water boiled by Tetsubin tastes better and even soft. I feel so, too, maybe because it stands like a symbol of warmth.

Iwate Prefecture (岩手県) is best known as "Nanbu or Nambu Tekki" (南部鉄器; Nanbu Tekki ironware) for production of Tetsubin.

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Some photoshots, taken from Mt. Yoshino;





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Toudai-ji (東大寺; Great Eastern Temple) is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Nara. Toudai-ji was founded by Emperor Shomu (聖武天皇) when Nara was the capital of Japan. It was constructed in year 752 as the head of temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan. It is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara'. Today, this temple serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon (華厳) school of Buddhism.

Its main hall, the Daibutsuden (大仏殿; Big Buddha Hall) is the world's largest wooden building, despite the fact that the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size. The massive building houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha (大仏様; Daibutsu). Approx. 15 meters tall, seated Buddha represents Vairocana Buddha (盧舎那仏座像) and is flanked by two Bodhisattvas (菩薩様).

Toudai-ji has a number of smaller buildings in the hills to the east of the main hall. These include Hokkedo (法華堂) and Nigatsudo (二月堂). The Nigatsudo Hall offers nice views of the city from its balcony, and is the site of the spectacular Omizutori ceremonies (お水取り), which are held annually March 1 through 14.

It is a very spacious temple and covers most of northern Nara Park (奈良公園), I took plenty of time to walk around here because there were so many to see.

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There are three types of characters in Japanese, Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ) and Kanji (漢字). These three characters normally can be seen in a single sentence. Kanji are Chinese characters which were introduced to Japan more than 1,500 years ago while the Japanese language did not have an official writing system. Hiragana and katakana evolved later in Japan based upon simplified Chinese characters.

Hiragana and katakana represesnt phonetic sounds like alphabet. Hiragana has a roundish shape and is used for conjugation, function words and native Japanese words not covered by Kanji. Katakana is normally used for writing loanwords and foreign names. There are 46 basic hiragana/katakana syllables.

Kanji represents both meanings and sounds. A total of 1,006 kanji are taught at the elementary school and most of the Japanese are supposed to know 2,136 kanji.
Will cover more detail about Kanji under separate article.
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