Back in Kyoto & Nara

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We awoke this morning and got the hell out of Osaka. The old Manjiu man wasn’t up yet so we left with empty bellies and sad hearts. We plan to return someday and visit him again if he haven’t smoked and drank himself to death.

We took the train to Kyoto and dropped our stuff off at the Ryokan we were staying at. From Their we went to Nara to visit this big Buddha and some see some sights. We were able to get the rapid express to Nara (this will make some more sense in a minute) and get their in about 45 to 50 minutes. We arrive and the sun has decided to bless us with its presence, and we definitely felt it. We found the local tourist office and they gave us directions and a map. This is obviously a big tourist spot, there were tour groups everywhere. So we walk in the blazing sun for about 30 minutes passing a ton of shops. We find this shrine and step in out of the heat. Surrounding this shrine is a ton of deer that have been declared as sacred or something. For 150 yen you can get some crackers and feed them. They are very used to tourist feeding them and they can get pushy. One decided to bump me in the ass a few times. He got no crackers, pushy bastard.

So we fed the deer for a while and walked on the big temple, dodging gaijin hunters and deer droppings. We arrive and shell out 400 yen to get in. Its nifty, a really really big Buddha made of bronze and gold. I guess it’s the second biggest one in the world. It was neat, prolly be more important if we were Buddhist though. From their we made our way back to the station to catch a train back to Kyoto and head to our room. We got on a local train this time not really knowing it. This time the train stopped at every station on they way to Kyoto. So after seeing way too many locals and about an hour and a half we arrive in Kyoto. We went out for dinner and found a Sushi restaurant. This was one of those places where you sit at the bar and grap the stuff off a conveyer belt. They charge you on how many plates you have and each plate has a dollar value attached to it. We ate until we were satisfied and left. On our way back to the room we stopped and grabbed some beer. We sampled a few local beers and I passed out.

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Photos

The view from out "business hotel"
Pretty grungy part of town. Lots of homeless people, but good food!

A great shirt
Purely random American words...I love these shirts!

Another great one I bought
really cheap, only 500 yen!

I take good pictures
Outside the great buddha shrine

Robert feeding the deer
These were especially pushy

a temple!
Robert looking sublime

Some school kids took this picture
we call them "gaijin-hunters", or "foreigner hunters". School kids who accost us in groups in attempt to practice their English.

Ta-da!
There he is! All 180 feet or so of Buddha...made out of bronze and gold.

Really steep stairs
So steep you need a rope to go up!

Grr
This statue looks really mean...and big

Wood buddha
It is said that if you rub the part of this buddha that bothers you, you will be cured. But it was too tall for me to rub it's back....our backpacks are getting pretty darn heavy!

Enlightened
The hole in this post is said to be the same size at buddha's nostril. Children who can fit through are said to become smarter...We didnt' want to stand in line to try our luck.

Kaki-gori!
Here's here we got some tasty kaki-gori (snow cones) on this hot day

Lysol?
The syrup bottles remind me of lysol toilet cleaner...hmm

Robert feels more holy
The number of temples we've visited must account for something right?

Comments

[mommy]

don't milk the deer?
That's translation make crack me off. Soo funny!