Japan II: Nara or Bust!

Time for the second blogpost on Japan! When we last left the story, Ross and I had made it to the Marunouchi Hotel, having misjudged the scheduling of the trains in Japan. After a good night’s rest and a good, hard look at the train timetables, we headed out for Nara. The shinkansen (bullet train) that runs between Tokyo and Kyoto made for a very comfortable trip; we should have bullet trains around here. Anyway, after changing trains in Kyoto, we finally arrived in Nara, the first permanent capital of Japan!

Compared to Tokyo and Kyoto, Nara is a quaint town. It has plenty of shops/restaurants/etc, since it’s a popular tourist destination, but it retains a definite small town feel. People frequently walked down the middle of street, just because car traffic was so sporadic. By the time we checked into the hotel it was mid-afternoon, so we decided to immediately hit the sights. You might wonder why we were in Nara anyway. Good question! Well, on the 2^nd Sunday of every January, Nara sets fire to Mount Wakakusayama (which really was just a glorified hill), in commemoration of a centuries-old feud between two Buddhist sects. People come from all over Japan to see it, and since the festival coincided with our vacation, we wanted to check it out!

But, it wasn’t dark yet, so we had just enough time to see some other stuff. First was Nara Park, a green space known for its extremely tame deer. I mean, tame like pets. They just roam around, looking for hand-outs, and of course, many people oblige. We walked through the park, on our way to Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall), the largest wooden building in the world. As the name implies, it houses a huge statue of Buddha. So, yeah, this building was MASSIVE! Not to mention that it was also beautiful—definitely one of my favorite sights from the trip.

By the time we were done at Daibutsu-den, it was getting dark, so we decided to get some food from the street vendors and scout out a place for the hill-burning. This is when I learned that Japanese people don’t appreciate “lean” meats. One of the vendors was selling delicious-looking chicken skewers, and Ross and I both decided to go for those. Unfortunately, the chicken had a good bit of fat/skin on it, so it ended up being less than ideal for me. Of course, Ross gobbled his up—1) because he’s not a picky eater at all, and 2) China has been a good primer for such things. He noted that similar skewers in China would likely have gristle and bone in them as well. Um…right. I was thankful I only had to dodge fat and skin. :)

So, on to the hill-burning. Let me make one thing clear: IT WAS REALLY COLD!!!!! I did have a hood on, and I did have multiple layers on, but it was still freezing out there! Plus, there weren’t any chairs or seats, so everyone was just standing around in the park, looking up at the hill for over an hour. Not especially comfy. The event started with some fireworks, which were enjoyable, and then they started torching the hill. I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but I’m pretty sure it involved a massive explosion that left the entire hillside simultaneously in flames. On the contrary, there were about 20 or so guys with torches who started fires around the hill. The fire did travel up the hill, but never was the hill totally ablaze. Visually, it wasn’t that exciting, but it was still fun to see a tradition that’s been going on for hundreds of years. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to thaw.

The next morning, we packed up to head back to Kyoto. On the way to the train station, we picked up breakfast at a doughnut shop and saw two really adorable Japanese kids with their dad. Perhaps we should’ve taken their picture, but then again, adults taking pictures of kids can sometimes appear sketchy. At least in the U.S. Anyway, we took our doughnuts to the Starbucks in Nara Station for our first Starbucks experience in Japan! Just to clarify, my guidebook was apparently printed prior to the explosion of Starbucks’s in Japan, so I was under the impression that we had better take our opportunity to enjoy Japanese Starbucks then. Wow, I was wrong. They were EVERYWHERE! No matter…we enjoyed the Starbucks and hopped on the train to Kyoto!