Wednesday, June 26th - Nara

This morning I was awakened by the sound of rushing water. Not being a light sleeper, at first I thought someone showering and then I thought that maybe the hostel was flooding. It took a moment to realize that it was raining. I was hoping that maybe it was just morning showers, but sure enough, when I consulted weather.com it was rain with 100% chance of rain. The hour by hour stated that it would rain until 1pm, at which time it would change to heavy rain.

We had wanted to take a "relax day" while in Kyoto, meaning that you set aside a day where you don't have to be up at a certain time and you just dink around all day doing stuff like laundry or travel writing. We had planned to take our relax day on Thursday, however given the weather I woke up my handsome husby to see if he wanted to move it up to today. In the end, we decided to forge ahead with our plans to see Nara today, despite the downpour. We are Oregonians after all and I figured that at least the temples wouldn't be crowded (this turned out to be wildly inaccurate).

We had our breakfast of random conbini pan (mine turned out to be bread with soft cheese in the middle and walnuts on top, Mc ended up with what he thinks was a Hello Kitty-brand cheeseburger) and I had left over lemon tea while Mc drank his Darth Vader coffee jelly. We grabbed a couple of the numerous umbrellas the K's House has set out for you to borrow and took off for the train station. The train station is maybe a 10 min. walk and we were drenched from the knees down by the time we got to the station. We had to stop halfway to get cash out of the ATM at 7-11 (which does accept US debit cards and even has a handy English option, in case you were wondering).

Yes, cafe jelly means there are jello-bits in your coffee. Mc claims it's quite good, actually.

At Kyoto Station we looked at the train line board trying to see the best route, but we didn't see a line that went directly to Nara, which the internet had led us to believe did exist. So we decided to ask. Kyoto Station has a very handy train information desk where they speak very good English. The lady there told us that the train to Nara left in 6 min. (Actually, the conversation went more like, "Ohayo! What is the best way to Nara?" "JR line." "Yes . . . which line." "Nara line." "OK, but where is it?" "Ah, go through this gate, then upstairs turn left, it is #8, [glances at watch] it leaves at 10:04." She said this last part very nonchalantly, as if it it was inconceivable that we wouldn't be able to make a train when we had 6 whole minutes to find the line and get there.) Thus began Mc's first experience running for the train. He was a champ; he didn't even knock anyone over and we got seats with like 30 seconds to spare.

The express train to Nara takes just under an hour. Once we arrived we saw that it was pouring in Nara as well. We made our way to the information office (which contained a bizarre 3 foot statue of a monk-looking guy with deer antlers) and asked how to get to the Todaiji Daibutsu (big Buddha). The Todaiji Daibutsu is what the Kamakura Daibustu was modeled after. The one in Nara is a little bit bigger and his house didn't blow away in a typhoon (although it did burn down twice). His house, in fact, is the largest wooden structure in the world. Since I love the Kamakura Daibutsu so much, it only made sense to visit his brother, especially when I found out how close he was to Kyoto. The lady at the Nara information desk got out an English map and then traced the road to the Daibutsu with a red pencil. Mc and I looked outside and then at each other and I asked, "Isn't there a bus?" "Oh, you want to take bus?" We looked outside again and said, "Yes," wondering briefly if she was unable to see the downpour out the window or if she thought that foreigners preferred to swim to tourist attractions. She directed us to bus #2 which picks up right outside the information office. Nara does not appear to have an all day bus pass, and it costs 200¥ to get to the Todaiji Daibutsu each way.

The big Buddha and the building he is housed in are both incredibly impressive and totally worth the trip to Nara. Admission is 500¥. This big Buddha is in a totally different pose from the one in Kamakura, he has one hand up and his eyes are looking at you. Mc and I bought a candle (it's another way to pray or make wishes) and as Mc picked a candle from the unattended candle box and lit it, looking around at this extremely old, paraffin soaked building he looked at me and asked, "Really? They're just going to let me light a candle in here?" To which I responded, "Well, it's only burned down twice." (A note about Japan: Everything is made of wood and any sight you go see is a 500 year old impeccable replica of the 1,000 year old original that burned down at least twice. It would seem that, like when a kid kicks over an ant hill, the Japanese just get right back to building it the exact same way in the exact same spot of the exact same stuff. Although that's not totally true - the ants must have gotten tired in the case of the Todaiji Daibutsu as his current house is but two-thirds the size of the original. Anyway, everything in Japan has burned down.) This Buddha is also flanked by two large and impressive guardian statues. While I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, I still prefer my fellow in Kamakura.

Todaiji Daibutsu building (those specks are people)

Todaiji Daibutsu

Nara is also famous for having a lot of shika (deer) wandering around the huge park. I was worried that we wouldn't get to see any because of the weather, and it turns out that was silly. There are deer everywhere. (Due to a legend about a god riding a white deer to visit a family in Nara, deer here are protected and have done as they please ever since and have developed quite the attitude.) There are stands along the path to the big Buddha selling shika senbei (deer crackers) for 150¥. Apparently the deer are pretty tame. Of course we needed a picture with a deer and on our way back from the big Buddha, we stopped to buy some shika senbei. In my mind, the picture would be me kneeling down near a shika (Japanese deer are very small), maybe wrapping one arm around it as it nibbled delicately at a cracker while sharing my umbrella. What happened was a gang of shika saw us head towards the shika senbei stand and followed us, flipping a coin menacingly in the air. Once I had paid the lady and unwrapped the senbei, I looked up to find myself completely surrounded by shika armed with antlers and I think I saw a chain and a lead pipe. Holding an umbrella and a stack of senbei and a camera while a shika has his head in my purse (in the off chance I snuck a cracker in there when he wasn't looking) was difficult at best. Mc had to free me of the shika in my purse rather forcibly before I could hand off the camera to him for a picture of me essentially being mugged by adorable deer. As soon as the senbei were gone, the shika gang spotted another easy mark and were off. We definitely got pictures of deer, but I doubt they were very cute.

Deceptively cute shika

We thought this sign was hilarious . . . at first

After that, we decided to call it a day. Our shoes were soaked through and the umbrellas were only really working to keep our heads mostly dry. Once back at Nara station, we were looking for a conbini so we could get a lunch for the train when Mc spotted a MOS Burger. MOS Burger is the Japanese version of McDonalds. MOS stands for Mountain Ocean Sun, although I have no idea how that relates to fast food. They are 2nd only to McDonalds in Japan. Their unique feature is that they offer a few sandwiches with pressed rice as the bun. Much to my disappointment, they no longer offer the yakiniku (beef) version of this. So instead I got the tobikiri with cheese set (set is what we would call a meal), while Mc ordered the W thousand yasai burger set with onion rings, 2 to be exact, and his first neon green melon soda. They have a new menu item which appears to be a taco on naan bread topped with nacho cheese, which was very popular among customers eating around us.

After we got back to Kyoto, we bought stuff for dinner in and just dinked around the rest of the evening. The highlight was going to Family Mart and getting a pizza-man. Man is the Japanese word for soft white steamed buns filled with a variety of things. The Chinese call them bao. In Japan you will find them stuffed with yakiniku, beef stew, curry, a number of delicious options. However, like many things in Japan, some of the flavors are seasonal (only available during certain times). My favorite was always the pizza flavor and I was ecstatic to see that they are in season while we are here! Mc got one too and declared it delicious.

Tomorrow is our 2nd dose of Kyoto history. Until then, back to dinking around . . .