Nara

From Kyoto, we took a day trip to Nara to see some more temples. Lindsey had been able to sell me on this leg of the trip particularly because I was informed there would be deer that we could feed little rice cakes to.

We hopped on a few trains and when we got off at Nara we saw the majority of the touristy looking folks headed to a bus that was free. Naturally we assumed this was the way to the temple with the giant Buddha (also an attractive factor in Nara) and the deer.

We got off the bus and were greeted by a very open field with no deer in sight. We'll refer to this as hint number 1 we were in the wrong location. Still, we just assumed the deer were at some other location and we walked up to the large building we assumed was the temple with the giant Buddha.


NOT the temple we were looking for.

Lindsey noted that there were supposed to be warriors at the gate of the temple. I wondered if 'warriors' was code for some kind of column or tower since we saw nothing that resembled warriors. In retrospect, this was hint #2. Finally, we went into the 'temple' and in the center of the room, I noticed a structure encompassing something. I circled around to the front, certain that here I would find the giant Buddha and our earlier concerns would be assuaged...



NOPE! Hint #3, no giant Buddha. We hightailed it back to where we had caught the bus and searched for someone to direct us where to go. The first person we approached didn't speak a word of English and, as so many conversations with non-English speaking people in Japan had gone before, it quickly turned into a giant game of charades, ending with him physically pulling us to a guide that did speak English. The English speaking guide confirmed what hints 1, 2 & 3 had foreshadowed. We were in the wrong place.

After getting directions, we hopped on a bus for 'Take 2' of our attempt to see the giant Buddha and the deer. We quickly realized that unlike the buses in Tokyo which had alternated scrolling the stops in both English and Japanese characters on the screens, the ones in Nara showed only in Japanese. If our earlier conversation could be likened to a game of charades, this journey could be likened to a cross between Pictionary and matching. We looked at the stop that we needed to be getting off at...the characters looked like a little house, star, small person, BBQ or whatever came to us first when we looked at them. We then started intensely at the screen and called out the symbols as they scrolled across...Big tree! Penguin! Dumbell! Ultimately, I looked out the window, saw deer wandering around in the park and we pulled the signal to get off the bus. We figured we were close enough.

It was awesome. There were literally deer just hanging out in a park. They weren't enclosed, and they were perfectly happy to let you come over and pet them, though they were happier when you brought them rice crackers which you could purchase from vendors on the street. Though a sign warned that the deer are wild animals and do occasionally attack people, based on the sign, I believe they primarily attack old women and little girls.



We watched an older man with a handful of rice crackers get mobbed by the deer, which was wildly appealing to me, and not so much to Lindsey. The same guy, once he finished feeding the deer his rice crackers actually went and bought us a stack. I relished in all of my glory as the deer came up to me and I divided out the crackers to them...well, until a rogue one with antlers rammed me in the butt for not paying attention to him. Pushy jerk. He did not get a cracker.


Guy getting mobbed by the deer


Linds not enjoying the experience as much as me



After about 934028490382 photo ops, Lindsey was able to peel me away from the deer long enough to get us to the temple. Though there were still deer all along the walk up to the temple, just hanging out. I also noticed a person whose job was to sweep up all of the deer shit that was on the pathway, presumably all while reflecting on which bad decision he had made in his life that had led him here.



Shitty job.

We continued forth to the temple. Finally seeing the warriors that guarded the temple at the entrance way. Inside the temple we finally found our big Buddha...and he was BIG.





Wandering around the temple, we came across a small hole in a pillar. This hole was supposedly the size of the Buddhas nostril. Anyone who could fit through supposedly would be enlightened. Studying the hole, I doubted even my thigh would be able to be enlightened. Several school children delighted in squeezing through. Lindsey toyed with the idea of attempting it before deciding against it because, let's be serious, how embarrassing/HILARIOUS would it be if she got stuck in front of all of these people? Plus, it's not like there were a lack of cameras in that place. She pretty much would have secured her place in at least 45 people's vacation albums.



After the giant Buddha, we went to another temple that was essentially a series of orange gates uphill. It was definitely one of the cooler, more unique looking temples we had seen during the trip, which was good cause at this point after seeing so many temples, the temples really had to have some spectacular element to them to stand out. Kinda like once you get to the top 15 in American idol.







After Nara, the next leg of our trip would take us to Hiroshima.