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Published: February 6th 2006
My New Friends
This is a nice lil Deer. Note my dress code and think about just how many layers of clothing fit under a Jacket and Jeans...TODAY IT SNOWED!!! And properly this time! There was a leetle bit of snow the night before last (while I was ignorantly snuggled up in my futon) and a tiny bit while I was at the train station in Hirakata on the way to Nara yesterday. But today... It was awesome. I was amoung a handful of previously disadvantaged no-snow-havers who legitimately enjoyed riding my bike to school in the snow this morning. I rode with an aussie and a yank, and the yank was bewildered by our whoops of delight in the frozen weather. My concentration in class was decidedly lacking, but hey... I'm just a poor student from deepest darkest Africa (Minami Afurica to the Japanese). Statistically, I should be malnourished and uneducated. Though I'm niether of those, I am still illiterate... But that is changing. I spent about 2 hours practicing today, and I can even read (though not completely verstaan) parts of my milk carton! Yay me.
The snow was light and fluffyish, and felt like tiny needles touching my cheeks as I rode along! There wasn't enough to accumulate on the ground, but the air was thick with white spots. It was like being in
Shoji and Ocha
This was taken inside the restaurant in Nara where we had lunch. Note the paperdoors (shoji) and me actually drinking tea. Green Tea to be specific. Tastes, to me, a bit like drinking hot grass. Deeelicious. Urgh! a TV with bad reception in an oddly positive way. On the way home the weather was a lil warmer... So the snow was rainish and sludgy. I didn't enjoy that very much! Thank you parents for the snow-proof, waterproof, wind-proof Jacket. It pretty much saved me from hypo(per?)thermia during the past two days! Despite the snow today, yesterday I was much colder. This was largely due to prancing about with deer out in the cold all day...
I joined a day trip to Nara (bout 2 hours ish from where I'm living)along with a pile of other clueless foreigners and a handful of locals. We saw some truly awesome temples, including one containing the biggest Bhudda I've seen in my life, and probably the biggest I will ever see! This thing was huge! It pretty much took up a whole temple... And this was a beeg temple! One of the temples dated back to about 710! That's pretty old. However, it has burnt down several times... An been rebuilt exactly (yep, the Japs are really obsessive about that) a few times. We also went to some shinto shrines. There is a weird coexistance and intermingling of two religions,
Bentoo in Nara
Our traditional low restaurant table... Eating Bentoo (lunchbox) meals. Shinto and Bhudism, across the whole country. I think the Japanese aren't very religious in general, so this sort of general spirituality fits in rather well.
Quirky fact about Nara: There are deer everywhere. Yes, the animal... I even touched them and watched some crazy friends feed them (yes, legally). I think they have a spiritual significance, but I'm not sure. Couldn't read the sign board... One tried to bite me on the boob. Luckily I have some speed in my reflexes... Pic to follow.
I also ate in a beautiful Japanese Udong restaurant for lunch. Udong is a kind of noodle. Very popular. I actually had a kids meal... Coz that way I got to sample a bigger variety of food, for about the same price as an adult bowl of noodle soup. Pretty sneaky I thought! And it was delicious. Except for the Soba (buckwheat noodles). Luckily I didn't order a whole plate!
The day would not be complete without the mandatory drag-all-the-boys-shopping session after doing all that sightseeing. I saw some Obi (waist band thingies for Kimono) for about 52 000 yen. That's a lot for a strip of fabric! And the prices still
Temple
This is the Temple that houses the big Bhudda. It takes up about a third of the floor space, and just fits in snugly under the ceiling. go up from there! Think 152 000 and beyond. Beautiful though!
And dum dum dum.... Beeg highlight of the day: Defrosting at Mister doughnut (an amazing japanese coffee and dougnut place) with goodish coffee and awesome doughnuts! Think chocolate doughnut covered entirely in chocolate and dipped in crispy yellow things that tasted like honey (stop drooling on your keyboard!). I'll be back. I hear their angel cream is amazing.
Our time in Nara was definately the coldest, most beautiful day in Japan so far. The strange thing about Japan, is that it looks just like you expect it to... Westernised yes, in places, sort of but totally on a different planet.
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Tore Lund
non-member comment
Hi Kim! Very interesting and well written! Keep up the good work! Regards Tore