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Japan is well-known for its beautiful sightseeing destinations, particularly in and around Kyoto. From Kiyomizu Temple to the Gold Pavilion, there’s a nearly unlimited supply of gorgeous buildings to check out. But perhaps one of the most fascinating is the Phoenix Hall in Byoudou Temple, the expansive temple gracing the ten-yen coin.

Sadly, the hall has been undergoing repairs since September 2012, making it off-limits to visitors. Fortunately, the Phoenix Hall will reopen in March next year, but what a bummer it must have been for visitor who missed out over the last 16 months. Well fret not, disappointed sight-seers! We’ve found something almost as awesome: A Nico Nico Douga user has made a near-exact replica of the structure–using only cardboard!

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While you might not expect something made out of cardboard to be either impressive or even beautiful, we would be lying if we said we were anything but amazed by this masterpiece of papercraft!

Made from roughly 5,000 pieces of cardboard and whole lot of glue, the miniature hall took five months to build.

Upaaza Touryou, the Nico Nico Douga user who put the hall together and uploaded a five-minute video explaining the process, also created detailed hand drawn plans to aid the workflow. Check out some highlights of the construction process below!

▼First delivery drones and now building supplies? Is there nothing Amazon can’t do??

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▼One of the hall’s roof sections mid-construction.

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▼”This is basically what it looks like.”
Basically awesome!

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▼Completed!

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▼Amazing!! I wish I could shrink down and walk around inside…

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Supplies for this Phoenix Hall were only about 300 yen (about US$3.00)! That is, of course, ignoring the cost of the work that went into this, but we’d say it was time well spent!

If you haven’t visited the real Phoenix Hall in Uji City, Kyoto, here’s a photo of the beautiful building. We highly recommend giving Byodou Temple a visit just as soon as the repairs are finished.

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▼And here’s a picture of the Japanese 10 yen coin, which features the Phoenix Hall.
We kind of prefer the cardboard version…

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You can check out of the full video of the construction process here.

The same Nico Nico Douga user has also uploaded a video of the Phoenix Hall made in Excel, leading us to wonder if maybe this lady or gentlemen might not have a bit too much free time at work…

Sources: ITMedia, Jin115, Byoudou Temple, Nico Nico Douga
Images: Nico Nico Douga, Wikipedia