A Day in the Old, Old Capital

Morning came to Osaka, and we made out way out in search of breakfast. We had a traditional Japanese breakfast... of Subway. The best part was the little napkins they gave us, which were of course individually wrapped in plastic, and said "Subway, The natural ideal style of eating vegetable." Whatever that is supposed to mean, wacky Japanese. After that, it was shower and check out time, then we went to the Tennoji station to hop a train to our next destination, Nara. It was not a long train ride, and when we got there, it was still quite early. We wandered our way down the road towards our hotel. I kept thinking that this street looked familiar, and it turned out to be the street that had the all you can eat place I went to three years ago! Though it seems to not be there now... Oh well. When we were just about to our hotel, we saw a random 5 story pagoda just hanging out in front of us. We decided to check it out after checking in. Because we're cool like that. We easily found the Hotel Sunroute, our little home for the night, and went inside. I checked us in, but they didn't have the room ready yet, and told us to come back at 2, but we could leave our luggage with them. No problem. We stopped to get beer (melon soda for Kev) from the vending machine in the lobby, and dad started putting money in it, and there was already about 600Y in there! Free beer and pop for us! We got a free round on the vending machine. I liked that a lot. Since we had time to kill, we went to the pagoda up the street. It was old, it did not seem to be rebuilt, and was showing its age, which, in my opinion, makes it cooler. Also, dad and Kev saw their first Nara deer. Oh yeah, they rock. I think that the place is called Kokufuji, but I am not sure. From here, it was time to meander towards Todai-ji, which holds the Daibutsu, Giant Buddha. Since we were not coming from the Kintetsu Nara train station, we were coming a different way, but it was easy to figure out the way. We walked through old woods and parks covered in deer (and, subsequently, deer poo) that led us to the street that I was familiar with, the one that led directly from Kasuga Taisha and Todai-ji to the Kintetsu station. We went down the tourist trap streets, chiefly ignoring it all, but my dad, after all of the shops, starts asking me every 10 seconds if that sign said bathroom, or that one, maybe the other one over there. No, they were not. He had to wait his turn. Another odd thing, the pond in front of Todai-ji that has the Shinto shrine on it was filled with little metal shapes, like animal cutouts. It different, but probably something for Obon tonight. So we went in to Todai-ji, and dad and Kev were floored by how huge the building is, and the fact that it has been there, in its current incarnation for about 500 years. The original was built in the 700s, but the current building is its third generation of it. Still damn impressive. The Daibutsu is still huge, and it was pretty crowded today, being the day of a festival. We took our time examining the different things in the building, the giant bronze lotus leaf, the other Buddha, the statues, and so on. Kevin became enlightened, and got a rugburn from Buddha's nostril as payment for his passage. I never said the path to enlightenment was easy! All in all, Todai-ji is still cool, even after seeing it three times. We wandered out a back way of Todai-ji and were starting to head towards where Kasuga Taisha is, but we didn't want to get there while it was light out, so we turned down other side streets, came down the little alleys that the taxis went to on the far side of Todai-ji, and wandered through Nara neighborhoods. It was pretty cool, we even found a little bamboo forestation. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was about 3:00, so we decided to laze for a bit, read, play some Game Boy, and watch the local tv. It seems that the Olympics start today, and that is cool. Earlier in the morning, dad mentioned that he had wanted to go to one of the places that had a large selection, like a family restaurant (that I equated with having a drink bar, ala Gusto's). I saw a Gusto's on the way in, so I started leading us there. It was way back by the station, and dad and Kev whined, but we made it there in one piece (meaning I didn't beat them severely about the head and neck area), and got our drink bar, I mean food. Fanta melon soda flowed freely, though it was only Kevin and I who partook of it. While eating our lovely little meal, we watched the Olympic Judo on tv, but could never tell who really won. Not a bad little meal, but dusk would be approaching in the hour, so we went off towards Kasuga Taisha, and as we were walking, I stopped dead in my tracks. It was Rajeev! He and his dad have been travelling around Japan, and met up with Yoshi today in Nara to bum around. It was quite unexpected to have a few people from JCMU to wander around with for the next few hours, but there are no complaints. Our newly expanded group started wandering towards the shrine where the lanterns may be starting to be lit. The lanterns were in fact lit, and we spent quite a bit of time slowly making our way through while talking with Rajeev, Rajeev's dad, and Yoshi. The lanterns were amazing, when we got to where there was a cluster of them. My pictures just don't do it justice, because they would give off a fairly dim orange glow, softly lighting up the lantern, but not much else. My camera could not pick up the subtlety of that light. We parted ways when Rajeev et al decided to pay the 500Y to go see the lit hanging lanterns in the back recesses of Kasuga Taisha. We don't think we missed anything by not going back there. It was a nice long walk out of there, and we were just enjoying the night. On a little back road, we found a place to buy another beer, and Kevin made an observation that if we were wandering around like this in a big city in America, we would not feel so safe. True, there would be people to mug us and not to sell us beer. I am pretty sure I prefer this country's practices... We found ourselves walking through some darkened woods (as it was night time), and gravitating towards a light music. Could it be a Siren's Song or something to lure us to our unwitting demise? Nah, it was a concert being held in the Daibutsu Park (outside of Todai-ji, which was filled with little glass vases with a floating candle in each. It was pretty amazing, all of those candles lit up everywhere. We stood and appreciated the two people playing the music a for a few minutes, then made our way out. Even the museum on the road home was filled with the little lights. Nothing wrong there, it makes night time Nara prettier! By the time we were almost back, we found three Japanese women working a booth selling draft beer. How could we pass it up? The women were crazy-energetic (sugoku genki) and seemed to be thoroughly impressed that I could speak Japanese. Not an odd occurrence. Another thing, since I do all the talking, and dad all the paying, they never know who to give the change to. They give change back and thank the person, but if the person receiving the change is not who they were talking to.... Oh well. It works out. We stopped to sit and look at the large pond by the hotel strung with fairy lights and have our drink before coming back upstairs. By the way, from our hotel, we can see the pagoda. We win the hotel view game thus far. Though it won't hold out... All we did tonight was watch some of the Olympics (the Brazilians beat the Japanese at Women's Volleyball, by the way) and read. Everyone was out by 1030, but I couldn't sleep till midnight. I mean, why bother if you are going to be leaving the hotel at 11 anyways? I don't need 12 hours of sleep! Now, it's the morning of the 15th, 930, and Kev is finishing up his shower, and dad should be next, followed by me. We will then head out to the train station, getting breakfast on the way, and trying to figure out where our hotel is for the next three nights. Wish us luck!