Nara

I just had both a really nice weekend and a really frustrating one. On Friday evening, I caught the bus back to Osaka (my 3rd trip on this bus!) where I spent the night. I was really glad to be in a hotel that night because it meant that I could watch the Olympics! (the TV in the common room of the dorm does not work). I missed the performance unfortunately, and had to settle for watching the teams march in and the lighting of the torch. I must comment that Japanese coverage of the event is far superior to American coverage. I watched it for a few hours (from about 10:30 to after 1 since it took so long to get to the lighting of the torch) and there was not a single commercial! I don't know how it works here, but that was wonderful.

The next morning, I got up early to head to Nara, the first official capital of Japan. There is alot of history in Nara...and deer. Most of the sights are concentrated inside or around Nara Koen (nara park). The park is also filled with deer who are entirely tame since tourists (and vendors) feed them. Nara is famous for the deer and the world's largest wooden building, the Todai-ji temple, which also houses Japan's largest Buddha statue. Anyway, I met up with Jamie, another American JSPS fellow who is working in Kyoto. We walked around the park, seeing the various temples shrines and lanterns (the Kasuga Shrine here has hundreds of charming stone lanterns that have moss growing on top). I won't comment on the heat because you all should know by now that it is very hot everywhere in Japan now. But I enjoyed green tea ice cream and later melon flavored shaved ice (the shaved ice that they have here is awesome. Also, I love the melon-flavored stuff here, something I sadly cannot get in the US).

Nara itself was nice. It was of course nice to have someone to talk to and we met up with Liz (who I had previously traveled with in Osaka and who is stationed in Nara) for dinner and had a wonderful meal of okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and some other teppan cooked thing that was also oishii (delicious).

The annoying part was listing to Jamie (who is stationed in Kyoto) and realizing that she has seen NOTHING of the city even after about 6 weeks there! I mean, I know that she is working hard, but she didn’t even take an hour out of her day to see the big Gion Matsuri parade! There were so many people in Kyoto to travel with and it is easy to navigate. Plus there is tons to see, so her constant comment “next time I come to Japan, I do x and y” got on my nerves. You gotta take advantage of opportunities when they come! And what makes you think next time will be different from this time? If you were not motivated to do it while it was so easy, why would you do it next time? That just drives me crazy. But looking at her is kinda startling because I think that is how I used to be. I now realize how far I’ve come and I’m really proud of myself. I’ve come a far way from the insecure high school student who worried about everything and never did anything. And Japan has really pushed me and forced me to grow in a good way. (As I side note, I have similar frustration with Liz who complains about how isolated she is. Excuse me? You are about 1 hour and maybe 30 minutes from Kyoto and Osaka. I realize that you have to take a bus and a train to get there so it’s not really an option on evenings, but at least you have access. And you got taken to Tokyo for a long weekend to do work and shop so I don’t want to hear it!)

Sunday was crazy. Since we did Nara as a day trip, I decided that I would go back to Kyoto to buy gifts since I hadn’t done that yet. I knew a good place that was a cooperative of several small stores that sell handcrafted things. So I thought that I would catch the train to Kyoto from Nara which is pretty easy, grab a bus to the store, shop, grab the bus back, and hop on an express back to Osaka in time to catch my bus at 1:50. The bus to Osaka only takes about 30 minutes (everything is pretty close together in Kansai). And catching buses from Kyoto station is easy so I thought I could do it no problem. I did do it, but I barely made my bus. Seriously, I got to the bus at 1:45 and the bus left promptly at 1:50 because everything is one time in Japan. And I don’t know if I would have made it if it weren’t for the fact that the train let me off right by Sakurabashi gate which is the exit that I needed for the bus. But I got gifts for all my family members…except Ryan who I totally forgot (though I included him the budget, I kept wondering why I was under budget). Oh well, I’ll pick him up sometime.