Japan, Day 6, Nara
Posted By Mike Gfeller on August 21, 2014
Woke up early again to work on the Day 4 blog. I’d like to try to get caught up at the end of each day but there just isn’t enough time. Further, I have been typing the blog on my trusty iPad, so it takes me longer to type.
The temples here are large and everything else is small. Water glasses? Small. Beer glasses? Small. You don’t see people walking around with 64 oz. Big Gulps. They don’t find it necessary. Oddly enough it is acceptable to throw a half gallon of ramen in a bowl and place it in front of you…in fairness though, at most restaurants they place water pitchers on your table so they don’t have to take the time to refill the puny glass. Lean.
I am still waking up in the middle of the night but it is working for me for now. It allows me time to write the blog while Wolfgang is sleeping. I was watching some crazy shows on TV last night. I can’t elaborate though because I don’t know what the hell was going on. I still have 5 beers remaining of the 6-pack I bought and can’t seem to find a convenient time to drink them. Imagine that?
We met John at one of the many bakeries at Shin Kyoto. It smelled so good everyday that we passed it I figure we’d give it a try. We had eaten one of our protein bars earlier but were still hungry. Wolf and I got there first and we picked out two pastries each. The first one appeared to be a canoe-shaped roll filled with ham and cheese…except no. The cheese turned out to be horseradish, which I despise. The second one was one of the best pastries I’d ever eaten. It was like a braided croissant with embedded cheese and ham. It was buttery goodness. I regret only having it once during my time at Kyoto. Wolf gobbled down his two. John arrived and bought one and then we ambled toward the train platform for our trip to Nara.
To get to Nara we would be taking a regular JR train, which really is like a subway. We got on the train and an hour later were in the old town of Nara. John’s wife had given us directions from the terminal to the Todaiji temple, which holds a massive Buddha statue. We walked through the city of Nara, again heading uphill, until we reached the park. With John taking the lead we walked towards where we thought the Buddha was…it was a beautiful walk. As on the island, the deer were plentiful here and you could buy about a 1/2 dozen pancake looking treats to feed them for only 100 yen. They looked fat enough already so we passed on the cakes. The path was paved but right through a large wooded area that covered us from the sun, which was quite hot. By this time in the trip I had come to rely upon the washcloths that John had given as a present to wipe away the sweat.
We reached the temple except that it was the wrong temple. We literally searched around those woods for an hour without success. Could the Buddha be moving on us? We started to believe so. John finally asked someone and they pointed to the west, so we started back the way we came. We made a side trip into a botanical garden that cost 500 yen each. It wasn’t well spent because in the short time it took us to get to the wisteria gardens, both John and Wolfgang were concerned about the bugs. I was at peace but not for long. As we settled down on a stone bench nestled under a canopy of wisteria, the ants and bugs got the best of the others and I was forced to abandon my tranquility to find the nearest exit. Still, I managed to get in a few pictures which I will post to Facebook at some point.
After leaving the gardens we finally crossed a Main Street and asked an official-looking person standing there how to find the Buddha. We were getting warmer, literally and geographically! The grounds here were impeccable. These temples are very important to the Japanese and they care for them well. No doubt this is paid for by the thousands of good luck amulets they sell at the temples to tourists. After getting some great pictures of blooming crepe myrtles, deer, and landscape we finally made it to Todaiji Temple. I think it was 400 yen each to enter, which we did. John asked a local tour guide to take a picture of the three of us in front of the temple, which he did. John uploaded this to Facebook. The fellow taking the picture had his price though. He was a Chatty Cathy as it turned out, and told about his daughter going to MIT and how he has visited Boston. John grabbed the camera and me and we headed towards the temple. The Buddha inside was indeed massive and impressive. The temple surrounded the Buddha and you walked around him to see the various other exhibits on display, before the inevitable funneling into the gift area where you could buy charms for traffic safety, happy marriage or preventing bad luck among others.
Wolfgang bought a few things and my feet were starting to hurt again so I needed to sit down. We jumped on the bus back to Nara Station and found a restaurant. John is a runner and so needs to eat every two hours. We had lunch (can’t recall exactly what I ate) and it was good enough. We hopped back on the train to Kyoto, but it was a slow train so somewhere along the way we changed trains to a faster train. The conductor sounded like Winnie the Pooh. John recorded his voice as he made one of the many announcements. John and Wolfgang were enjoying each other. As I mentioned, John is one of my oldest friends but until this visit had probably not spent more than a few hours around Wolf simply due to the distance of separation. I was happy to see the interaction and the apparent trust Wolf had with John.
We got back to Shin Kyoto around 1530. We decided we would go back to our respective hotels and regroup at 530 to head to Osaka for dinner. Plus, I wanted to see the lights which I had heard were spectacular. I took a nap for an hour and then we were headed back to meet John again at the bakery. We jumped on Shinkansen to Osaka, which took all of 15 minutes. Then we took the train down to Osaka station and I think we changed again but the details are now running together. Along the way we were discussing what we would have for dinner. John mentioned ribs and I started talking about my ribs (of course) and needless to say, by the end of it, we were headed to Outback Steakhouse in Osaka. After a 40 minute wait, we were seated. Wolf and I had steaks, John had ribs.
We got out of dinner later than expected, because John took us to a great shopping district famous for shopping “arcades” and lights. The shops were closing as we got there but we saw the lights of Osaka and I took a lot of pics which I still have to upload. I hope they turn out well!
We jumped back on the train and Wolfgang fell asleep. We made our way back to a Shin Osaka and then back to Shin Kyoto, arriving back to the hotel around 2200 or so. Before we separated from John we made plans to meet at the bakery again at 0900 so that we could make our way back to Tokyo, where we would finish our trip. A long day, but rewarding. I regret not being able to see more of the Osaka nightlife but they have similar experiences in Tokyo, whichever we will definitely experience over the next few days.
In some ways it seems like the trip is rushing past, but then I think about Hiroshima and it seems like it as forever since we were there. I am not sure I could live here, but I could definitely see myself spending more time here in the future. Day 6 is over.
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