The former name of Nara is Heijokyo - now you probably see the pattern developing with Heijokyo, the Kyoto, and now Tokyo. Our site visit was to the palace site, which was only rediscovered as the former palace site in, er, gosh I have forgotten, but i think it was the 1950s (must do some homework).
Since the actual site of the palace was not known earlier, the local railway line runs through the middle of it (as pictured)
The site is like an experimentation ground for different ways of displaying archaeological heritage - whether to mark out floorplans, foundations, plantings or to reconstruct elements for scale. Since I am well aware that this is not likely to be very interesting to any of you I will not go into detail on Nabunkan presentation styles and so on. I will just add a picture of the portion of the temple they have decided to rebuild - it should be complete in time for their 1300 year celebrations in 2010.
Lastly, I think I have figured out how to add video, so here is an explanation of the base isolation system that has been constructed in the foundation system of the structure to protect it (and people!) in the event of an earthquake. It gives you a glimpse into what my day to day learning experiences are like here in Nara:
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