After the attacking deer in Nara we went to Todai-ji, where an enormous bronze Buddha is housed. When I say enormous, I really mean enormous. The statue weighs over 500 metric tons and is almost 15 meters in height. The fingers, according to wikipedia, are roughly the size of a human. How’s that for a little perspective?!
Yesterday we took the day off and went to Nara. It is the height of sakura (cherry blossom) season here and Nara seemed like the perfect place to see the sights, enjoy the nice day, and look at beautiful flowers.
I was especially excited about going to Nara and seeing all the deer. More than 1200 deer roam the grounds of Nara-koen (Nara park) looking to tourists and small children for handouts. Originally they were accepted there because they were believed to be messengers of the gods. Now they are something of a phenomenon, they have taken over the space and are as much of an attraction in Nara as the shrines and temples.
In general I like most animals (remember the talk of monkeys a few months ago), and I was really excited to see so many deer walking around. It wasn’t long before Aaron decided to buy me a package of shika-senbei (deer biscuits) to give to them myself.
Well, as you can see in the video it didn’t really go quite as well as I had planned. The deer, at about 10am, were quite hungry and some of them were not at all patient while waiting for their handouts. Today I have bruises on my legs to remind me of the experience.
It’s kind of funny because later in the day the deer were so stuffed full that they were laying about and tourists were walking up to them, trying to give them the crackers, and the deer would just sort of sniff them and turn up their nose. I guess I just picked the wrong time!
The first time I saw one of these jars, while walking down a very popular tourist strip in Naha, I must have jumped about ten feet in the air before I moved away, as fast as I could. As it turns out, this reaction dulled fairly quickly because these jars of sake were everywhere. They lined almost every liquor store wall that we walked by.
While we were in Okinawa we spent a lot of time doing what we do best, walking around. Fortunately, we were with two friends that also seemed to enjoy that very same thing. For three out of the four days we were blessed with great weather – sunny skies and warm-ish temperatures.
On the second day of walking around, just a block or two from the beach, Ella stopped and started looking around. “I think I hear a goat,” she said.
The rest of us sort of laughed. I, myself, kind of rolled my eyes (without her seeing, of course). I mean seriously, a goat?!?! We are on a tropical island, minutes from the beach, in a bustling part of town, not exactly the type of place you would expect to see a goat.
She persisted though, “Really, I think I hear a goat.” The rest of us still hadn’t heard anything, so we continued walking. We walked to the corner, crossed the street, and sure enough, there was the goat that she heard.
It was, perhaps, the saddest little goat I have ever seen. It was all tangled up in the line that it was tied to. Ella immediately went over to see her little goaty friend, and the proceeded to tell stories of her pet goat from when she was a kid.
Next time Ella tells us that she hears a goat, I might actually believe her the first time. But, an elephant, maybe not.
The sun is out, the flowers are blooming. Not only does it mean that spring is here, it also means that it is the beginning of festival season. With the exception of the yuki matsuri in Sapporo, it has been a few slow months on this front. Fortunately, we were able to kick off festival season with one of the most highly anticipated festivals (especially for foreigners) in this area.
The penis festival, at Tagata-jinja, is something that I wanted to attend since before arriving in Japan. It just seemed so out of the ordinary. I thought the Japanese were such a modest and reserved culture, that I could hardly imagine them parading through the streets with a 2.5m long giant penis.
Well, I don’t have to imagine it any more. We went, we saw, and we had tons of fun. And, thanks to the magic of the internet and digital photography, you don’t have to imagine it either, because we have pictures to share with you. If you are checking from work, you may not want to read the rest of this entry right now, don’t say that you haven’t been warned.
Another stop on our one-day tour of Kyoto with Aaron’s supervisor. Kiyomizu-dera is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto and it is obvious, there were hoards of people everywhere. Including a particularly large group of junior high students on a school trip, a small group of them came and introduced themselves and talked to us for a bit. They were quite interested in talking to Aaron and I, but they never even bothered to talk to his supervisor. Apparently he looked a little too Japanese.
In addition to visiting Ryoan-ji, Aaron’s supervisor also had a few other stops on our itinerary. The next was Kinkaku-ji, known as the “Golden Temple,” for obvious reasons.
On Monday we travelled to Kyoto with one of Aaron’s supervisors to enjoy a day of sightseeing. The first stop we made was at Ryoan-ji, another world heritage site (wow, we really seem to be hitting a lot of these).
Ryoan-ji is a zen temple located in Northwest Kyoto. One of the temples more prominent features is the traditional rock garden which is thought to have been built in the 1400’s.
Aaron just mentioned that we visited Hida no Sato in his Engrish Tuesday post. Hida no Sato is, essentially, an old building graveyard. They have moved numerous historic old structures (homes and whatnot) to this site in order to preserve them and allow visitors to see what rural life in Japan was like.
We couldn’t have visited on a more picturesque day. The village was quiet and peaceful and the ground was rather untouched by footsteps. We were able to wander at our own pace and take a good look inside the buildings (most of which are completely open to the public). The only limiting factor was our stamina and the relative numbness of our toes.
While we were visiting Takayama with my parents, we also visited Hidanosato. A “village” of historic buildings moved in from all over gifu. It was very pretty, if only they hadn’t covered the paths with all that slippery…
