Nara's manhole. Full of deer.
So last week I went to Nara and Kyoto. Both were pretty fun, although the conditions for the Kyoto trip were much better.
We had a day off for Japan's Foundation Day (which no one seems to be able to explain to me), so Rachel and I went to Nara with a big (too big, around forty people) group of people from school. Some foreigners, some Japanese students. Rachel and I hung out most of the time with two girls named Reiko and Manami. Nara's famous for the deer that roam the park and temple areas, and while they can look cute at first, these deer are greedy. Greedy, GREEDY deer. If they think you've got food, they'll go for you. You can buy deer food and feed them, and to stave off the masses, people tend to raise their hands above their heads so the deer won't just nom the food right out of their hands. I wanted a picture with the deer, so I raised my hands like so, and one deer found this an opportune time to bite my hip. Greedy, greedy deer. I didn't even have food. Later on one of them came up to me and took a bite out of the plastic bag I was holding. Stupid deer. One poor little child was screaming and crying because the deer were EVERYWHERE and he was terrified. Poor baby. =(
My picture with the deer! That one on my right bit me. Asshole.
A guy named Tomo actually feeding the deer and not faking like I was.
Some pictures from Nara Koen (park).
Look, guys, if you mess with the baby, the parents will get mad.
BABIES TO MESS WITH
On the way to see the deer in Nara Park we passed this place that's apparently famous for its delicious mochi. And it was delicious! I bought some as a souvenir for my family. We got to watch these two guys pound the mochi in this big wooden bucket thing. They would shout every time they threw down their mallet thingies.
The guys with the mallets
The delicious mochi! It's best fresh!
We ate lunch in this little gazebo thing on a pond, where I think our large group scared off other people. Seriously, travelling in this large of a group was horribly cumbersome. We'd stop for bathroom breaks every ten minutes, and people liked to lollygag and make everyone wait. We couldn't just do what we wanted. I had fun, but it was a bit annoying. Also, it was around lunchtime in the gazebo when it started to rain. It was already cold that day, but the rain made it just awful. After Nara Park we went to Todai-ji, the temple with Daibutsu or Big Buddha. It was HUGE there. Apparently the temple as a whole is the largest wooden structure in the world. It was really lovely. Unfortunately, my pictures of the Big Buddha aren't great, as I didn't want to use flash in the temple. I think Rachel might have some good pictures of him on her facebook, though.
Todai-ji
In Todai-ji, in one of the pillars in the back, there's a little hole that's supposed to be the same size as (and/or represent?) the Daibutsu's nose. If you can get through it, I've been told you can reach enlightenment in the next life (although my host sister said it was a little different). It really was a little hole, but Rachel and I both made it through! My hips got stuck for a moment. It was a little embarrassing because all these people liked to stand around and watch, but I'm really rather happy I did it! It was fun! And Manami got a picture of me doing it.
I can fit!
A shoddy shot of Daibutsu. You really can't grasp how very large he is from a picture.
I really liked the charms at Todai-ji, so I bought ones for myself and for Megan. Megan's is for safe childbirth. Mine is a bit different from what I thought, though. The English tag said something about "Improving human relations," which I thought sounded great, because I want to make friends here and make them actual lasting relationships. I found out from my host mom, however, that while this charm can be used for that, it's normally used to acquire a boy/girlfriend. Not quite what I was aiming for. And I showed her the charm right after I told her that I didn't have a boyfriend and didn't really feel the need for one. Sigh. Face, goodbye, I've lost you. Ah well. WHATEVER! It's for friendship! And it's got a butterfly on it, which is perfect for me. So.
After Todai-ji, we made our way back to the station through the torrential rain. It was awful, and I felt like some kind of sopping-wet abandoned kitten by the time I got home. But the day was nice.
Nara's famous Engrish!
And now for Kyoto! A much more fun day. The weather was completely clear. I went with Rachel and a few Japanese friends. We went to see Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavillion temple. On the way from the station we saw a whole bunch of pinwheels next to a tent by the river, so we went to see what was going on. What I gathered was that the art club from a Kyoto college was... sitting in the tent making bamboo chopsticks? I think they made the pinwheels, too, but I'm really not sure. I have no real idea why they were there, but they let us make chopsticks (I gave up) and took pictures for us. Huzzah nice people!
Two different big "Dai" symbles. Dai means big. They light these on fire in the summer for a festival!
Then we ate dango and took a bus to the temple. Kyoto's famous for maccha (green-tea flavored things), like maccha dango and maccha tea and maccha ice cream. I hate maccha. I find it revolting. Remember that green tea pocky Kanako gave us? Like that. Disgusting. But Rachel loves it, so we stopped for a minute so she could buy some maccha dango. Then we went into the actual temple grounds (not into the temple, normal people can't go in) and took billions of pictures, walked along the path, and took more pictures. We passes some more ojizousan on the way, and these guys had bowls in front of them so you could chuck in money. Rachel and I tried many times to get 1 yen coins into the bowls and failed miserably. At the end of the temple along with some other shops and stands was a stand that was giving out little samples of umeccha (umeboshi tea, or pickled plum tea) and maccha (green tea from the powder). I tried the umeccha and found that it was like drinking salt water. Tricky, tricky umeccha. It was pink, so I thought it'd be sweet. FALSE.
We finished up the temple walk and tried lots of different-flavored daifuku-mochi things, which were delightful, and then we left to... TAKE PURIKURAAAAAA I love me some purikura. The one we used made our eyes look huge and freaky, and it was worse for some of the Japanese girls because half of them were wearing fake lashes. That seems to be a trend right now. I also saw some ganguro girls (no picture, sorry), and they told me that ganguro was totally a thing in the past. Not trendy!
After purikura, we ate lunch at this little place. My food was really good, but they gave me a raw egg to put in it, and... it was just gross. They eat raw eggs here. I don't think they believe in salmonella here. But ugh. That egg. Never again. Next, some of us went on to the apartment of the girls' senpai. We watched Ponyo and Love, Actually and ate delicious homemade Korean food, and I made friends with a Korean girl. And apparently plastic surgery is quite popular in Korea. Who knew?
So that was about it for the trips! I'll post up again sometime soon! I really am sorry my posts are so few and far between. I don't mind writing them, but adding pictures is really a pain in the ass, so I keep putting it off. Sorry!
ALSO! If I use some Japanese in here without thinking and I don't provide a translation, let me know. I forget that not everyone knows Japanese.
