Kyoto, 19th April « Not Fun Anymore

Kyoto, 19th April

Nara Park, famous for its free-roaming deers, terrorizing school-children and will headbutt tourists for some much sought-after senbei. Ahh… something new, something fresh, some much needed change of scene. I was very excited about this trip to Nara. The deers were allowed to go wherever they want because of the degree of respect they garnered for themselves for being the messenger of God( in this part of the area anyway). The go-between, the despatch-rider, the Jimmy boy, they are believed to being able to bow when you offer them a sincere bow yourself.

I tried, I bowed, with senbei in hand. It didn’t work. Probably wasn’t sincere enough. They were swarming me when they saw that I had senbei(s)(rice crackers) in my hands though.

They are domesticated-ly wild, if you get what I mean. They are tame enough to interact with humans but not washed. They eat senbei but will munch on your shirt once you run out of it. They won’t bat an eyelid if you try to touch them but will chase after screaming schoolkids.

I got head butted.

*Okay deer, just because you’re Japanese. I won’t make you apologize and go “summimasen! summimasen!!” Because your countrymen did enough of that, for the littlest thing and always make me feel bad for being stingy with my “sorry(s)”*

Bad, bad, deer.

We walked further up to Todaiji and into Daibotsu-den where the largest Buddha statue in Japan is housed. And the statue itself is called the Daibotsu. Daibotsu-den is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. Meeting us near the entrance of this humongous structure is a statue of Yakushi Norai, a Buddha of medicine. It is said that if you touch any part of the statue and then touch the part of yourself, it will cure any ailments that you have there.

I touched my head, naturally. And I believe I got smarter. *ahem*

Stepping into the temple itself, it was awe-inspiring. Everything is huge, carved, wooden and beautifully done. Towards the exit, there is a hole in one of the pillar. Anyone who can go through it will achieve enlightenment, so it’s said.

Such touristy things I cannot resist not doing. So I lined up, saw how tiny the hole was, crawled in with my shoulders length-wise and pulled myself out with one arm. It was great knowing I’m still quite nimble, if ever that was an enlightenment.

Naturally, the kids were the most zen-like among all the people there because they just go through it again and again, like it was a tunnel in their usual playground. *Oh look, there she goes again! 15726187th time, I believe?*

Cute.

After that, we walked back to Nara Station, or rather, the street next to it. Lined with shops and covered walkways, it was where we got our lunch. It has also alot of souvenirs to offer, like fans, chopsticks, postcards, kimonos, the likes, but let’s get back to lunch. We ate at Mc D’s. Oh-the-horror*gasp*…

Nothing like that actually, I was getting tired of Japanese and was relieved to get my hands on some globalized American-fast-food-chain grub. No offense to the Japanese people, if it makes you feel better, I get bored of Chinese food too, every other day. I had the Tomato Lettuce Bacon and chocolate pie. I must say this, the chocolate pie was superb. It has the crust of the McD’s pies that we have over here, but it’s shaped to a triangle and has chocolate filling oozing out of it. It’s costs only 100 yen, oh the joy!!

Anyway, after getting back to Kyoto Station, we headed to Kitayama, somewhere North of Kyoto. My travel companion was to meet a family friend of hers, and being the NBTD person that I am, I tagged along. They were very nice people and even brought us out for dinner in Sanjo for a dinner of okonomiyaki, widely known as the Japanese pancake but tastes better than any plain ol’ pancakes.

After dinner, we went Geisha-stalking in Gi-on. When I say ’stalking’, I wasn’t exaggerating. The Geishas, one would expect them to walk meticulously, to keep their balance while prodding on those clogs. On the contrary, one couldn’t even keep up with them even in sports shoes. They were that fast. Swarmed by tourists, holding their cameras and camcorders to their face, they just hurry from one building to another with their heads lowered, almost saying(with their body language) “get off my face, you freaking imbecile!Never see Geishas before AH??”. Intense.

The night ended after we walked around Shi-jo, near Gi-on on the way back to Kyoto Station and subsequently Tour Club.