Nasty Conjugation

My apologies for the lateness of this post, friends and relatives. I recently got distracted by other projects, work, and being sick, and I neglected to continue with the chronicle of our adventures across Japan. Well, let’s have an end to that! Without further ado, here is Day Four of our trip, wherein we discover the hidden joys of Nara.

SPOILER ALERT: The hidden joys of Nara are deer.

I posted the pictures for Nara last week, but if by chance you missed them, take a look!

The fourth day of our trip began, like every other day, with breakfast at a local café. Today our destination was Nara, the first capital of Japan and famous home of the sacred deer. It was just a day trip from Kyoto, so we didn’t need to find a new place to stay. The whole day was free for us to become pure, unadulterated tourists, which is apparently what every school in southwest Japan was thinking, too. Who would have guessed that historically important locations would be popular for school trips?

Nara highlighted another one of the paradoxes of traveling in Japan. When you read about these famous or culturally significant locations, you always get glowing descriptions of the ancient temples, the serene atmosphere, and the sense of history that permeates every panoramic vista. Even though you know it’s irrational, you build an image of the place in your head that looks like a Twelfth Century woodcut. I subconsciously expected to step off the train into a pristine forest, to follow a moss-covered path to a temple, to smell incense and hear monks chanting. Naturally, though, you step off the train into an asphalt parking lot. There are no temples within sight, but you can probably see three convenience stores from anywhere you choose to stand. I know I shouldn’t be disappointed, but I can’t help feeling a little cheated by reality.

However, fifteen minutes of walking brought us mostly out of the modern jungle, and once safely inside Nara’s sprawling park we encountered our first sacred deer. For centuries these deer have been protected as sacred messengers of the gods, so they have taken the perfectly understandable attitude that they are in charge in Nara. You will find them everywhere: chasing Japanese toddlers through the parks, grazing in the middle of the road, browsing souvenir shops, eating the contents of your purse. I wanted to take one home with me, but I guess in Japan they have laws about that.

We took a pleasant walk among the deer in the general direction of Todai-ji, the main event in Nara. Todai-ji is the biggest wooden structure in the world, and is home to a Daibutsu (Great Buddha) that is also appropriately large. There was a Buddhist monk begging for alms on the bridge in front of the temple, so I gave him some money. We bowed to each other and he gave me a blessing! Or maybe he gave me a curse. I’m not sure because he was muttering in Japanese, but he seemed nice about it either way. When we arrived at the huge gates to the temple we were surprised to see people erecting a stage and lighting on the lawn. What was going on here? After a brief investigation we discovered that Japan’s beloved pop duo Puffy would be performing that night. I was tempted to stick around for the show, but there was adventure yet to be had. We had no time to be waiting around for some hussies dressed in tinfoil and pom-poms!

Inside Todai-ji we spent some time admiring the Daibutsu and then made our way towards the exit. On our way out we found something silly: people, mainly children, were standing in line to squeeze through a hole in one of the temple’s large supports. According to our guidebook, the hole is the exact size of the Daibutsu’s nostril, and anyone who manages to pass through it is guaranteed enlightenment. Lots of middle schoolers will be reaching Nirvana any day now!

After the big temple we left to go discover more of Nara. Our next stop was Kasuga-taisha, a big old Shinto shrine that is nestled in the woods (like all Shinto shrines should be). It was very pretty and also very full of middle schoolers, some of which ambushed us! Students are given an autograph book and commanded to seek out foreigners to practice their English skills, and it was impossible for us to disguise our true nature. By the end of the day I had signed my name as Joe Davenport, Joe Davenport Jr., and Dr. Joseph Davenport. Depending on whose assignment you looked at I could be from Orlando or Vancouver. You never know with me.

After Kasuga-taisha we ended up hiking through the woods and the suburbs to find a very, very old temple in the middle of some neighborhood in Nara. It was built in the Eighth Century and is still the original structure, which is pretty impressive considering most wooden structures in Japan have burnt down at least once since they were built. After that we were pretty exhausted, so we had a late lunch at a nearby café and then meandered our way back towards the center of town. We found a toy store where I dared Holly to buy a Dazzler action figure if we found one, fairly confident that such an event would never occur. I guess fate was out to get me because, sure enough, she found a Dazzler action figure on sale for two hundred yen at a shop in Nara, Japan. The world sure is an odd place.

With the sun setting behind us, we boarded a train back to Kyoto and the cozy environs of Costa Del Sol. Motivated by our financial situation, we decided to change our plans and take an overnight bus home from Hiroshima instead of the Shinkansen. This would save us money on both the train fare and a night in a hotel. However, when we called the ryokan in Hiroshima where we had booked two nights I just got a confusing message in Japanese! Throwing caution to the winds, we went ahead and booked two overnight bus tickets home and counted on calling the ryokan in the morning.

Next: Himeji and the White Crane Castle! Are We There Yet?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 4:23 am and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.