A class field trip to Nara was not exactly what I wanted to be doing when I woke up Saturday morning, but then again, I didn't really had a choice. I woke up and looked at the clock on my wall and thought I was running late. Threw on some clothes rushed down stairs to eat breakfast where my host family greeted me with faces of surprise. I was confused a bit, because I had told them that I was going on a field trip, but I didn't get it until I saw the digital clock and realized it was an hour earlier than I had thought. Yeah, I can't tell time. So I ate breakfast with my host family who left a little after and then went back upstairs to sleep in for another hour and a half.
Not going to lie, even though I feel like I've got a strong hold on this whole public transportation thing, I'm always a bit nervous about catching specific trains. I reread that and it really didn't make much sense so I'll just break down the situation. Basically, that morning I had to catch my train to make the train to Nara from Kyoto Eki that left at exactly 9:27. I know approximately how long it takes from my station to Kyoto, but trains from my station leave every half hour or so, which put me arriving at Kyoto Eki either ten minutes before that Nara train left, or about 40 minutes before. It would have been sweet to roll out of one train and right into the next all smooth and professional-like, but really it takes about 5-10 minutes to make a transfer given the sheer volume of people trudging up staircases and going through the ticket gates. So I took the cautious route and waited for about 30 minutes. Fun. Those were 30 minutes I could have been sleeping.
But the train arrived and I got and hooray, it was the right one and I settled in with the group and continued our hour long train ride to Nara. On a sidenote, I live partway between Kyoto and Nara, but our teacher was pretty adamant about going as a group and I was pretty adamant about not spending money on my ticket. So technically, I probably could have just met the group in Nara and had about an hour of extra sleep. But, I'm pake.
At Nara! This year is the 1300 anniversary of Nara becoming the capitol of Japan. Granted the capitol moved twice since then, but that's not the point. The point is that everywhere there's this creepy deer baby figure. Everywhere. Sento-kun is his name. I guess he's kind of cute in an alien sort of way. But he's just this cheery brightly colored animated figure that contrasts pretty starkly with the whole stern and traditional vibe of Nara.
We first visited Tofukuji, where we got our first experience (whiff of?) deer. There are deer everywhere in Nara. More places than Sento-kun. And these aren't just any deer, these are deer (just realized deer is one of those words that are both singular and plural. Deers just sounds wrong) conditioned to be fed. So much so that one of my fellow SCTIers who did not heed the deer warning signs was attacked by a pack of deer. So it's not as bad as it sounds they just kind of chased him a bit and tried to go after his senbei. But I have seen deer bring young children to tears. These Nara deer are no Bambi.
After Tofukuji we headed to Todai-ji with the big Buddha. Standing 24 meters (I think) this is the largest Buddha statue in Japan, although there are larger statues in China and India. Todai-ji is kind of like the name sounds (if you know Japanese, I realize) east and big. Real big. It was quite stunning. The Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas sitting on these crazy huge lotus petals that were taller than me. But probably the best part was the Buddha's nose. Basically, this pillar with a hole cut into it the same size as the Buddha's nostril. According to legend if you go through the nostril you will achieve enlightenment in the next life. A few of us decided to stand in line along with a bunch of five year olds. And there were a bunch of five year olds for a reason. The reason being that a grown man by American standards (overweight) would not be able to fit through Buddha's nose unless Buddha sneezed. One of the guys that was in my group that tried to get through, while not large by any means but rather is a respectable size, got stuck on the way through. We had to pull him through. Literally. Pull. Yank. Tug. The entire affair was rather silly and by the end we had an audience and tourists were taking pictures of us being silly tourists. Thankfully once he got through I knew I'd be okay and through I went. See you in the next life, Nirvana.
After the Daibutsu we broke for lunch. Yum. Lunch. We had to bring our own bentos, and unfortunately a few people forgot to bring it along and instead stared longingly at the deer wondering how deer compares to beef. Then off to a place whose name I forget, but it offered a gorgeous view of Nara and very pretty hanging purple flowers.
Afterwards, Stanford paid for us to go to the Nara National Museum, which consisted mostly of old, old, statues, pots and scrolls. It was pretty cool, but I just don't have the background (or interest) to fully appreciate those things. It also didn't help that all of the signs were in Japanese (like I'm in a different country or something) so even if I was totally interested in the artifacts, I wouldn't have been able to learn about them. But some of them were pretty neat, even in if I had no idea what the societal and political significance of them were. Can't really say that they were pretty, but all in all they were pretty cool. Oh, and on a geeky Acadec side note, they had butt-pots.
Needless to say, we made it through the museum rather quickly. Once outside and under the bright sun once again our group consisting of Prae, Kenny, Jason, Bridget, David and myself tried to decide what to do. Half wanted to go back to Kyoto and make the most out of our one day pass, and the other half wanted to stay and explore Nara. I sided with the Nara exploration crew, because, I won't have an opportunity to go to Nara again on someone else's dive, so may as well make the most of it. Granted, we had no idea where we were going or what we would find, as we had already visited the big tourist sites, but we were determined to find some cool things. And we did.
So Kenny, David and I picked a random direction and started walking. Passed a ramen shop, which looked promising, but the promise of adventure was tastier at the time so we trekked on. There were some signs posted with nearby sites and as the only girl traveling with two indecisive boys I got to choose the direction, so we set out for a pond. The pond was awesome, by the way. I know they say women have no sense of direction, but I choose an awesome direction. The pond wasn't huge (it was no lake) but it did have a pretty wooden gazebo out in the middle as well as bridges. But the best part was the fact that there were row boats for rent. When we saw that we all immediately agreed that our Nara experience wouldn't be complete without a trip out on the pond.
It was another one of those half hour deals so we paid the boat house lady and cast off. Kenny was rowing. He was terrible. But eventually got the hang of it. It was a nice fun lazy activity and some other girls, Mio and Teava, that were in our class ended up showing up to the pond and renting a bot as well. When our half hour was up we waited for Mio and Teava to finish up and set off with them as well as two other Japanese auditing students for more exploring. We ended up walking through a little shopping district, a bit too expensive for my taste, but fun to walk through nonetheless.
By this time it was getting kind of late so we began to head back to the train station. But on the way Mio saw a shrine and went there to record sounds for one of her classes. Acting as a heard we all followed suit, but what we thought was a shrine actually turned out to be a Christian church. Then some of the attendants there saw us and invited us in. The experience was altogether quite strange and rather interesting. After our little detour we finally made it to the station where we missed our train. Silly bathroom breaks.
We got on the next train and thanks to the Japanese auditors made the appropriate transfers and got back to campus where we parted ways. By this time it was a bit before 8:00 and David, Kenny, and I were famished. But we were near school, our choices were ramen or curry. We went for the curry, mostly because we've kind of fallen in love with that restaurant. Cheap, big portions, a super cool atmosphere, a local-ish (as local as Japan will get) vibe. So there. So good.
By the time we finished it was quite late so we parted ways and I finally headed home.
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