Japan Part II: Nara

 We decided to go to Nara for a day, the former former capital of Japan (710 - 784, The Nara Period). Besides the temples and heritage sites, Nara also has some interesting wildlife. Like, the very friendly deer.

There is a legend that a god rode in to protect the new capitol of Nara on a white deer. Since then, deer have been regarded as the heavenly protectors of the country, and are allowed to roam freely around the city.

I wanted to pet one but was afraid they would bite off my fingers. Silly me, Nara deer don't eat fingers. Nara deer eat only special Nara deer cookies.

I'm pretty sure the deer live off of cookies alone. Just like me in college.

As the sign warns, be careful.

"The deer of Nara are wild animals. They can occasionally attack people, so please be careful."

We saw several small children getting chased by hungry deer.

Nara was beautiful, for the forests as much as the temples and shrine. We took the walking tour of the city, which took us about 4 or 5 hours.

We went to Todai-ji first, a Buddhist temple which has the distinction of being both the largest wooden building in the world and holding the largest statue of the Buddha in the world.

The main hall of Todai-ji.

Surrounding the Buddha are two large guardian statues. They look pretty intimidating. Here is one of them.

Here is the statue of the Buddha, or in Japanese, "Daibutsu" (Which I'm pretty sure translates to "big Buddha").

It was very big.

Inside the temple, we saw a long line of children with their parents. At first, we thought it was something special for Children's Day. But, actually, it is related to a temple tradition.

There is a hole in one of the temple's support beams that is said to be as large as the Daibutsu's nostril. If you can squeeze through the hole, it is said you are guaranteed enlightenment in your next life.

Small Japanese kids. Lucky.

In practice, this means a lot of children will be granted enlightenment in their next life.

Afterward, we walked to Nigatsu-do, a smaller, neighboring Buddhist temple. It was very pretty.

Before coming to Japan, this was how I pictured everything in the Japanese countryside.

Then, we walked through the Katsugayama Primeval Forest. There are stone lanterns all along the trail. I wish we'd been there at night, as it looks like they still light some of them up.

Japan's temples and shrines give the feeling of being in harmony with nature. Perhaps this is the Shinto influence in the culture? All in all, I think Nara was my favorite of the cities we visited. It was definitely the most beautiful.

Japan Part I: Osaka

Since I got three days off for Children's Day (May 5th) and my school anniversary, I decided to go to Japan at the last moment. We found some cheap tickets on a Korean travel site and ended up flying to Osaka for a long weekend.

We did many things in Osaka! There were many things to do...

We went to a conveyor belt sushi buffet! (Sometimes they call this Sushi kuru kuru, which means sushi-go-round hah.)

...And then we felt a bit ill.

We went to Osaka Castle. It is very big.

I am standing in front of a koi pond. The koi were huge. As in, seemed to be too huge to become fully submerged in the pond, huge.

They have many interesting things in Japan. Like the beer vending machine.

Wow.

We also learned about Japanese culture. 

For instance, the South Park episode "Whale Whores" perpetuates the idea that the Japanese hate Whales and Dolphins, given how much they hunt and eat both. But, this is completely untrue. The Japanese actually hate octopuses. 

Osaka is known for the very delicious street food, takoyaki, "octopus dumplings."

They eat sooooo much takoyaki. All this octopus-eating eventually evolves into this:

A huge light-up octopus. Japanese tour boats come by every 10 minutes and one lucky person gets to fire a laser canon at the octopus. Having been successfully 'slain,' the octopus sings cheerfully about delicious takoyaki and everyone is joyful.

So, I Was in Japan a Few Days Ago and...

While a guy friend and I were in Osaka, I realized I'd forgotten certain feminine products and had to buy them. We went into a 7-Eleven and I grabbed a box of said feminine products and a few other things I'd forgotten to bring.
"Do you really need that other stuff? Or, are you just buying it for distraction?" my friend asked.

I proceeded to tell him that yes, I needed them. I'm a 23 year old woman, I said, I don't get embarrassed about buying tampons at this point. As I said this, the Japanese girl behind the counter rang me up and then proceeded to carefully wrap up my tampons separately in a brown paper bag.

As my friend pointed out, in Japan, they'll apparently be embarrassed for you.



Oh, and this was The Cutest Thing Ever.

Jumping photos...

...are AWESOME.

Don't Wait Until Your Golden Years

A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad: 

I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; 

then, to have seen much and to have nothing, 

is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

- Rosalind, As You Like It

Shakespeare might not have approved of traveling but it has always been one of the most important things to me. I love seeing other cultures, learning other languages, trying new foods - I think it improves you as a person and makes you appreciate your life more. In some ways, I'm dreading going back to the United States after my contract ends and getting a career where I can't travel often.

Also, I read and hear so much recently about 'peak oil' that I think maybe I shouldn't waste time if I want to see the world. If you haven't heard much about this, my layman's understanding is this: there isn't that much more oil to be discovered in the world and what we have found is running out rapidly. Once we hit 'peak oil,' it will afterward become increasingly difficult and costly to extract oil. In fact, we'll never run out of oil, but it will eventually become more expensive to extract than it's worth.

Many people think we'll hit peak oil in the next 10 years, if we haven't already. There was a very interesting documentary on all of this, A Crude Awakening. Or, you can go to NPR (the only thing I really believe in religiously).

When we do actually run out of oil, economies will collapse, massive famine and poverty will ensue, etc. But on an extremely myopic and self-centered level, all this makes me think that I need to travel now. Unlike our parent's generation, there won't be any waiting 'til our Golden Years for us.