9/19/2001

4:15pm Train from Nara to Kyoto
Today seemed longer than it really was. First thing we all boarded subway cars, then a train to Nara. We went first thing through the Deer Park and on to Todai-ji Temple. It is the biggest wooden structure in the world- and really looks like it too. We really took tons of photos, even with the temple horns on G's head. We purified our hands before lighting some incense. Inside was a huge Buddha. The dimensions are on the ticket we got and says it's the Virocana Buddha. There were other statues equally as massive on each side of the Buddha. Behind those were big- I think wooden- warrior statues guarding the middle three. We walked behind the statues and found the holy nostril pole. There's this support beam that's huge and in the bottom is a tiny little hole. This hole is supposed to be the same size as the nostril of the Great Buddha. If you can fit through it you are supposed to be able to reach enlightenment. Lots of people reached enlightenment. The most enlightening fact is that you have to go through with both hands first. It honestly looked as wide as a toaster. Despite its apparent small size, lots of people fit through, though many needed help. Sula, this tall guy (bigger than Jimmy) had a really hard time getting through. He got exactly halfway through with a lot of pushing and pulling, and then took a break. Eventually they did get him out. G went through with little effort, and so did I. As we were watching people try to get through we saw tons of little children with matching hats all walking together.

They were maybe three years old. They were knee-high and not too stable on their little legs. They were in groups of maybe 20, each group with a matching bonnet color. They were paired up, one boy and one girl, holding hands at all times. The boys all had identical blue backpacks and the girls had red. They pulled each other down the stairs and walked away- the three groups led by leaders past the door.

We stopped, bought deer cookies for the crazy, biting, slobbering deer. They were nuts! The tiny ones were cute but it was hard to get food to them because the bigger deer were so pushy. The cookies were really thin, cookie shaped wafer things. The deer knew as soon as you bought them and flocked to where you were. And they attacked! Head-butting, chewing on clothes, jumping. They were like puppies but bigger. I got some really funny pictures of G and Eric being attacked and trying to make the deer line up in some sort of order.

We tried to find people-food after that for lunch. Actually we stopped at an ice cream shop and had sno-cones before we walked near the covered mall in Nara (as opposed to the covered mall in Kyoto). We chose a restaurant by the plastic food outside and went in. It turned out to be an okonomiyaki restaurant with grills in the tables. The waitress again cooked the pancakes, but this time there wasn't as much fish in them and they were less gooey. Regardless, I had yakisoba. It was really good.

After lunch, G and I went to the National Museum in Nara. It was about halfway between the train station and the Todaiji Temple. Admission was only Y170 for students. Inside was a beautiful collection of Buddhist statues, some wood, some bronze, and most from the 7th or 8th century. They were really impressive. I don't think I've ever seen anything so old in person (except perhaps dinosaur bones). Some of the signs were in English but about 90% of the information was only in Japanese. We walked around there for a while (see pamphlets in English for more information) and found the gift shop. From there we went to the other part of the museum, the East and West wings. There were more temple and shrine artifacts, this time many bells, scrolls, paintings, and archeological pieces of statues. Almost none of this information was in English so it was hard to fully understand what we were looking at. We took our time walking out.

To go to different areas of the museum we had to use our original ticket. It had a bar code on the back and we had to scan it to get through the gates.

We sat down in front of a pond to relax in the shade. While we were looking over the map (G's map) a deer came over and started eating it. G tried to put it away but the deer kept at it. They were playing tug-of-war for a while. Once he got the deer away from the map he went to buy more cookies. Obviously the deer was hungry. When he left, the deer opened his backpack and started sucking on his museum pamphlet. We fed the deer for a while- another scary deer experience- I ended up being chased through a pile of deer poop. Then headed to another temple (the name of which we don't know since the deer ate G's map). There wasn't anything outstanding about it -except that we were approached by junior high English students on our way there. They had some pre-written questions to ask us like, "do you like tempura best or sushi?" We answered as best we could. Then they took our picture and asked us to write down our addresses. They are going to send us the picture and a letter.