Prior to coming here, Courtland had the good sense to find us a deal on rail travel in and out of Osaka. As such, the four of us have unlimited passes on the Japan Rail system, good for the entire country of Japan. They're good for seven days, and today was the first day of that window. With the passes, we can ride the JR trains anywhere and everywhere--we can even use them to catch a shinkansen to Tokyo, and we're going to, eventually. I am looking forward to that ride. I have a plan to fire a bullet and then jump on the train to beat it to its target. I'll let you know how that works out. Probably from jail.
Today, though, we ventured just a little bit outside of Osaka, to the city of Nara. We caught a subway to the nearest JR station, and boarded the Namba line headed out into the countryside. I think we're all getting much better at navigating the mazelike subway system here. Wait until we try Tokyo, of course. The ride gave us time to stay off our feet for a bit, which is nice, because my feet and back are starting to really hate me.
Nara, when you first see it from the station, is only marginally different from Osaka. There's no highways, the buildings aren't as tall, and the signs have less English on them. Once you start wandering into the historical parts of Nara, though, it's a different story. Lots of trees, lots of classic Japanese charm, and lots of temples and shrines. Our main plan for the day was to visit Todai-ji, a temple whose impressiveness I will elaborate on shortly. First, you get to be distracted by the same thing we were:
Mochi!
We came upon this little roadside spot, where two men were beating the living hell out of some paste in a bucket with huge hammers. Then, they broke into this lightning-fast routine, where one guy just started hitting the stuff as fast as he could, while the other guy would dart his hands in and out to mold and squeeze the dough in between hammer blows. I don't think OSHA sanctions this particular food. Mochi-related worker's comp claims would bankrupt us unless we left this portion of the process to illegals. Still, it's hard not to have sympathy for food which has taken such a massive beating, so we mochi'ed up.
Mochi is extremely chewy, and the beans inside are very sweet. It can also be used as an orthodontic mold.
We pressed further into Nara, towards Todai-ji, passing a great number of pagodae. Surrounding the temple itself is Nara Park, which is filled with one of the things Nara is most famous for:
Awwwwwww.
Nara is chock full of these semi-wild deer, who are apparently holy in some respect. And, like most holy men, they want you to give generously. Now. And constantly. There are signs up advising you not to play with the fawns when their mothers are about, but really, I don't think any of these deer mind humans at all. They know that, given enough prodding and headbutting and cute bleating, it's only a matter of time before we drop 150 yen on a bundle of senbei crackers at any of a hundred park stands, and make with the feeding. And really, you try and say no to this face. Just try.
So, senbei at the ready, we fed the cute deer.
Growing up in Northern California, I'm used to deer being extremely timid. Hungry, yes, but not so much that they stick around if you get anywhere near them. These deer are anything but. The crowd at Nara was not small (this being a popular tourist spot, and a weekend to boot) but the deer weaved in and out of the people like they, too, had ridden the train to come and admire the scenery. In places, they formed cervine roadblocks, just curled up in big groups in the middle of the footpaths, confident that people would go around them.
I had occasion to pet several of them as they brushed right by me. And when they've figured out you're one of the ones with food, well, they're not dumb.
senbei get
Braving the ever-growing herds of deer and deer-related trinkets, we finally arrived at Todai-ji. The guidebooks say the place inspires awe. The guidebooks are pretty much accurate.
You come upon this archway, and all you can think of is, "Damn, yo. That's a big goddamn archway." And it is. The archway is all wood, and towers over you, as if to say, "Man, FUCK your arc d'triomphe." In truth, I think the French dealie is bigger, but, you see, this arch has a couple of things going for it. For one, it's--again--built out of wood, which for some reason seems more impressive, and has that nice earthy smell. Two, the arc d'triomphe doesn't have these giant and awesome guardian statues housed inside it which are posed threateningly. They don't screw around, these guardians, they know there's arches at stake. And three? This isn't even the main arch. You read that right. That mammoth in the photo up there? That's the opening act. That is a PRE-ARCH. You go through it, and then there's a BIGGER one.
Arch number two is pretty impressive, admittedly, but by the time you see it, you think, "Well. Yeah, it's big and all, but... another giant entry thing? The novelty is wearing thin. Sure, there's more colors, and it connects to some kind of giant courtyard, but I don't see what the big deal--" And then THIS happens.
Todai-ji itself pretty much knocks you right on your ass when you see it. David, Courtland and I are actually in this photo. Can you see us? We're standing just in front of that bell-like piece right in the middle of the walkway. Look for a white, black, and black trio of dots back there; that's us. Todai-ji is, according to the guides, the largest wooden structure in the world. And this isn't even its original size. They had to rebuild it a while back, and did so at 2/3 its original size. And this smaller reconstruction is STILL the largest wooden structure. You can't have a bigger one. Put the hammer down. You lose. Needless to say, the thing is not only giant, it is spectacular and beautiful. Inside are massive statues of the big boy himself, Dr. Buddha, MD, DDS, Ph.D, Esq, with a minor in women's studies. I would love to share some shots of the opulence within the temple, but, sadly, low-light photos are something of a weak spot for me. They always turn out terrible, and this batch was no exception. I am hoping one of my more artistically-inclined travelmates will help you out on this one. To sum up, Todai-ji is a wonder both inside and out, and now I've been there. I am going to go home and sneer at San Francisco for being so fucking bland and not wooden.
We stopped for a late lunch and toured more of Nara on foot, taking in some of the sights of the old-style town. We'd hoped to visit some more temples, but we'd gotten a later start today, and with it being Sunday anyway, most everything was closing up by the time we got there. Still, we'd seen the main event, and decided to ride back to Osaka by early evening. Courtland was hoping to run an errand in Den Den Town that we'd mised yesterday, and the JR train was going to put us there, so we went back to Shinsaibashi and beyond for a quick jaunt. Shinsaibashi is a completely different animal at night.
When that neon comes on, the shopping streets take on a whole new level of impressiveness. Suddenly the pachinko parlors seem noisier, the gadget stores seem high-techier, and you really start seeing the Osaka all the guidebooks talk about. We marvelled as much as four people who'd just seen Todai-ji could, and with Courtland's errand complete, we decided to give ourselves a break and head back to the hotel a little earlier than last night. Before we did, however, we felt it was time to check another task off the list--this one perhaps more of a chore than a mission. It is also something we figured would probably disappoint a lot of people, and it's my job to break you the news. Are you sitting down? You know, I don't care. Stand if you have to, I guess.
The four of us have now eaten at a Japanese McDonald's. In retrospect, though obviously not the sort of meal to write home about (even though I'm doing EXACTLY THAT, yay internet for allowing us to waste everyone's time with completely trivial garbage), it turned out to be a nice and educational outing for comparative purposes.
About the same:
The fries.
The drinks.
The level of English spoken by the employees.
Actually kind of better:
The service and competence of the employees regardless of the language barrier.
The sandwiches, which turned out to contain actual, crisp, decently tasty lettuce, as compared to our American mystery vegetable which turns into a formless green slime 45sec into the meal.
The availability for 20yen of these little spice packets for the fries, which one can apply in an extra bag much like shake & bake. My reasonably tasty addition: Spicy Basil.
A sandwich not available in the USA, a teriyaki burger. It is exactly what you'd think it is. Also available but not sampled due to extreme scariness: Filet o' Shrimp.
We've now spent three days here, not including travel days. If I return to the states with prosthetic feet, know that the originals died for a good cause.
7 comments:
What's the japanese word for a deer? And what species are they? They seem rather small, compared to whitetails, but they have much bigger flags than roe deer.
I did notice they have chicken wire around the trees, I assume to prevent the deer from noshing on the bark, little spice packets or not.
So far, Google won't let us post. Thia is a test.
(This is actually cahenning). More and more fun! We're loving the travelogue – keep up the good work.
Dad and I went to Nara on our honeymoon - whatever generation of deer descendants are there behave just like their ancestors. I'm pretty sure it was Nara where Dad lost his wedding ring about 4 days into the marriage – doesn't seem to have affected the relationship long-term.
P.S.
Now perhaps you'll listen to your mother when she tells you to take good walking shoes on trips like these.
Ah..."sika" is the word I'm looking for.
Mom, I *took* my good walking shoes. I've been using them the entire time. WHY ARE YOU SMOTHERING ME
Because it's my job, which I take very seriously.
Hope I didn't put you off blogging – I meant the shoe comment as a joke and am not sure whether or not your reply was serious or not. Anyway, I'm not sure whether or not you're checking e-mail, so here's this message:
We just got back from LA, which is on fire with the rest of Southern California. Seriously...Almost all of Malibu has been evacuated, up to a mile from Alex and Rebecca, so he called us on the way home from work early. He's evaluating the situation to decide what to take with if they have to bug out. On our way up highway five, we saw lots of the fires and dozens of fire trucks heading down from Northern California to relieve the local firefighters. They're saying on the news that the fire in San Diego is even worse than the big one last year. It's so dry down there and the Santa Ana winds have kicked up in a major way.
We had dinner at Steve's last night and his friends (whom you met at his house over Christmas) from Malibu who were supposed to join us had to stay home and pack up their two cars in preparation for the evacuation. It's pretty scary – like the Oakland fire was here.
Prior to all that the weekend was great – Aaron Samson's wedding rocked – Alex and Rebecca, who are likely better judges of such things (this is their fifth wedding this year) said it was the best wedding of '07.
Now we just have three full days home before we leave for Paris. I'm loving the blog – can't wait to read the next post.
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