nara

i just had the most incredible day of my life. i feel like i should write this entry all in caps 'cause my day was that exciting, but for the sake of the people reading it, i won't.

yesterday morning at 8am (6pm est), i woke up to the sound of knocking on my door. it was jamal, one of the students in my study abroad group, and he wanted me to come along to nara (which was japan's first capitol, followed by kyoto and then finally tokyo) with him and several other students. i debated not going--after the last 24 hours, i cannot BELIEVE i almost stayed in bed--but grumpily skipped showering and got dressed. we biked to the international atm, dropped our bikes off at the 24/7 bike garage that costs 170 yen/day (which is $1.70/day), and entered the train station. it took us a little while to understand how to buy a train ticket--you get tickets from a machine that operates a lot like an atm in that you put money in, press a few buttons and your ticket pops out. when entering the station, you have to go through automatic gates that only let you in if you send your ticket through one end of the gate and grab it again on the way out. once we figured out which train we needed to board, we got on and rode for about an hour. the scenery outside of hikone is awesome; it was snowing, so the trees at the tops of the mountains were completely snow covered. i wish i'd been able to take pictures, but we were moving too quickly. we had to stop in kyoto and transfer to another train, which we did successfully (how, i don't know). the train system here is run by the government and is so incredibly efficient; it only cost $11.10 to get to kyoto and $6.90 to get to nara from there. once we'd train hopped a few times, we finally made it to nara.

nara is a really neat little town with a lot of history. there were shops everywhere; cell phone charms especially are very popular in japan. the train station was located close to the park we were hoping to visit, and i'd also brought along the guide book i got for christmas (thanks, scott!), and it had a few pages about nara, including good, cheap restaurants to eat at. one of the restaurants, called "the don," served donburi, or rice with meat/vegetables/sauce on top, and we decided we wanted to eat there. the don was located in a shopping center across from an arcade and a mcdonalds, and it took us FOREVER to find this place! we had to ask three different sets of people where it was. luckily the japanese are a very friendly people--one of the people we asked even took the time to draw us a detailed map!--and we were able to find it eventually. instead of little individual tables, the restaurant was composed of one long table and a bar where everyone can sit; a lot of fast food places in japan are like that. the food was delicious, though! i had breaded shrimp and rice with some sort of tomato-y sauce, and hot tea, which most places will serve you for free. i promised myself i wouldn't drink any pop while i was here, and so far, so good!

after don, we made our way to the nara-kouen (nara park). the nara-kouen is famous for several different temples, including the todaiji temple, which is the largest wooden structure in the world. we saw the different temples and gates, all of which are HUGE and i can't wait to post pictures. the architecture in japan is just breathtaking. in america, we brag about buildings that are 200 years old, but here in japan, they have temples over 2000 years old. it's surreal. everything in the park was made out of stone or wood and had to be at least 800 years old.

the park is also famous for the 1200 deer that wander around freely; in japan, deer are considered messengers from god, and 100 years ago, the penalty for killing a deer was death. as we were walking along the main path in the park, we spotted a herd of deer running along the road down the hill to our right. we realized they were running towards a large white van parked beside a small pond, and decided to check it out. the van belonged to an older man and his two kids, who were all feeding the deer leaves of lettuce. there had to be at least 20 deer crowded around the van, and my group and i laughed and took pictures as the deer swarmed around, trying to get at the lettuce. the little boy handed me some lettuce through the window, and the deer descended upon me, biting my jacket and pants and even trying to eat the map of the city i had in my hand! i've never seen more domesticated deer in my life. we fed the deer several more times after that; there are vendors in the park selling shika-senbei (deer crackers) made of dried brown rice for about 150 yen ($1.50), which the deer love. the coolest thing about the whole deer-feeding ordeal? the deer actually bow to you! if you hold the rice cracker up above the deer's head, it will bow in thanks! if you wait too long or back away from the deer, though, it'll get irritated and headbutt you. one of them actually reached around and bit the back of my leg! they're definitely persistent and will swarm even small, oblivious children and take the food right out of their hands.

the only negative thing my group noticed about traveling around without any of our teachers or a native speaker was the fact that we couldn't read any of the signs or information about the temples and gates we were seeing; this is where the day went from neat to awesome. shortly after jamal and i made that observation about the signs, a man approached our group, and, in decently fluent english, told us he his name was yuki and that he was a "good-will" guide and wanted to offer us a free tour throughout the park! the other 8 people with him were guides-in-training, and he wanted them to get more experience speaking english and talking about the park. we of course took him up on his offer, and since there were 9 guides and 9 students, we all paired up and set off to explore. i chose yuki to be my guide, and he was kind enough to teach me everything he knew about nara-kouen. there are over 1000 stone pillar-lanterns lining the main path through the park, which are lit up two nights out of the year: once in february and once in august. there was also a beautiful fountain in the shape of a deer with water pouring from it's mouth; the fountain is used to purify one's mind and body. there are several ladles you fill with water to pour over your right hand, then your left, then you rinse your mouth and spit, and then dump the remaining water back into the fountain. the water was so crisp and fresh, i couldn't help but feel purified afterwards.

we stopped at one of the main ceremonial areas, which had a large wisteria tree growing in the middle of it. the wisteria is a symbol of the fujiwara clan, who founded the area. the maidens working the gift shop wore intricate headdresses with wisteria dangling off the front, and i would have gotten pictures, but they asked me not to (the last thing i want to do is become an obnoxious tourist. by the way, the best way to ask permission to take pictures is to say, "shashin o totte mo ii desu ka?" which means "may i take a picture?"). every year, they measure the wisteria blossoms to see how long they get; they call the tree "the sand sweeping wisteria" because sometimes they grow so long they brush the ground. near the wisteria was the gift shop, where you can buy fortunes written on a long piece of paper. if your fortune is good, you can hold onto it; if your fortune is bad, however, you can tie it to one of the many posts along the fence lining the wisteria tree to pray for a better one. there is also an offerings box in front of a large open space where the deity lives; this is where you can go to pray to a deity for good fortune/health/whatever. there is a certain way to pray, too: you toss your coin in (whatever denomination you choose), bow twice, clap twice, wish, and bow again. my guide showed me how, and then i tried it out for myself. :)

next, we walked to the todaiji temple, which was probably the biggest building i've ever seen, and like i said, it's the largest wooden structure in the entire world. the temple has burned down twice in the past during civil wars, and is now 2/3 its original size (but still gigantic). the walkway in front of it is made of tiles brought from india, china and korea as well as japan, to represent the origin and expansion of buddhism. on top of the temple are two giant golden fishtails--many temples in japan are topped with these--to ward off fires. the todaiji is also home to the great buddha, a HUGE statue that's at least twice as tall as my house. the statue is casted with bronze and used to be coated in pure gold. it was beautiful! the way the buddha's hands were arranged meant "do not be afraid, your dream will come true." there were several other large statues surrounding it, two of them being guardians of the east and west, who look out for the buddha. the inside of the temple was just so spacious and open; usually there are hundreds of people visiting at once; we got lucky and were among the only people there. there was also another offering box, so i made sure to make another wish. in this temple, however, you only need to bow once and make your wish.

after the tour, our guides led us back to the train station where we got back on the train to kyoto. we were all exhausted, but decided to stop in kyoto for something to eat. kyoto is a much bigger city than hikone (where i am) or nara, and there are tons of restaurants and bars all along the main streets. jamal, jake, gina, dillan and i split off from the rest of the group and went to a small, authentic restaurant called nyuuebisuno (the rest of the group went to get curry instead). the atmosphere was amazing and the wait staff was super friendly and hilarious. one of them spoke english and we had a blast talking to him. we ordered food--i had chicken with onions, we all split a huge salad with raw egg and tofu, edamame (which are boiled soya beans), and dillan got a mound of mashed potatoes which, frankly, looked very phallic--and we all had a round of sake. sake is rice wine and is popular in japan, especially hot sake during the winter seasons (to me, it's gross, but i've heard it's interesting to cook with, which i'll hopefully try while i'm here). the staff even gave us a round of sake on the house. it was probably the most fun meal i've ever had; the five of us mixed really well. red-faced and happy, we paid our bill, and as we were leaving, one of the cooks came to the door and thanked us loudly and animatedly; we all got a big kick out of it.

when we made it back to the train station, we couldn't find the rest of our group, so we just hopped on the next train home by ourselves. when we got back to hikone, we grabbed our bikes from the garage and biked home in the dark--luckily the streets of hikone aren't that busy at night, and we all have friction-activated bike lights. we biked through some of the back roads of hikone, past a karaoke bar i hear is a lot of fun, and finally made it back home. i was so exhausted that i went right to bed, but not after a hot shower and a quick recap of the day with my roommate. i bought a little stuffed dear to commemorate what was certainly one of the most exciting days of my life, and i really hope i have a whole bunch of souvenirs to help me remember my trip when i finally head home.

today, though, i think i'm just going to lay low, maybe make some phone calls. i have homework to do, too, and perhaps some shopping for the week. i'm curled up next to my space heater because it snowed last night! there are at least 4 inches on the ground! i wonder if people will want to have snowball fights later. we'll see!

miss and love you all. :) hope things in the states are going well! i'll be sure to send postcards sometime soon, as well as post pictures when my camera cable gets here. thanks again, mom, for sending it through the mail!

sarah