WEBmikey: Japan 2005: Day 6

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Japan 2005: Day 6
8.27.2005 1:56 PM \| Link	We woke up early to get ready for our day in Nara, and Kumiko's dad met us to drive us to a different train station that made it easier to get to where we needed to go. I hadn't seen Otousan (father) since Matt & Kumiko's wedding in Hawaii, so it was great to see him again! Kumiko said he was looking forward to our big dinner that evening, and he made some jokes in the car, calling me "Speaker" (rather than "Mike" for microphone). At the station we bought some breakfast for the trip - more yummy sandwiches. I got ebikatsu, which is a kind battered shrimp patty, and we ate them on the train. We arrived in Nara and left the station, and in just a few minutes I was seeing real live deer all over the place! I knew that Nara had some kind of deer park, but I never expected there to be so many walking right among all the people! Nara is the ancient capital of Japan, and the emperor kept pet deer - these deer are the descendants of that herd, so they are completely tame and used to people. You can walk right up to a big buck and pet him and even feel his antlers! There are plenty of stands selling "deer crackers" for you to buy and feed them, right out of your hand, which I did later in the day. We made the short walk to Todaji, the temple housing the Daibutsu (giant Buddha), passing through huge gates and seeing many more deer. The temple itself is truly amazing - it's actually the largest wooden structure in the world! We all lit incense sticks before entering, and then soon we walked up the steps and were looking at the Daibutsu, which is really magnificent. It really is a giant, which is difficult to show in photos, but one of the columns in the temple has a hole cut into it which is the same size as the Buddha's nostril, and children can crawl through it, which gives you some perspective. There are several other large statues in the temple, and you can walk all the way around and marvel at the giant pillars and amazing craftsmanship. Of course, there are some souvenir stands inside, too, which sell charms and things, and we all bought something. After a relaxing time sitting on the temple steps, we started to walk back to the station. I decided I had to get some deer crackers, and as soon as I bought them the deer came running! I could barely get the paper off the crackers before I was surrounded by deer, and soon some of them were taking little nips at my butt just to get my attention (nothing serious, but shocking)! I just kept walking as fast as I could and handing them crackers, and suddenly I was out of food and the deer calmed down quickly. After feeding the deer, it was time to feed ourselves, so we walked to a nearby Mos Burger for lunch. Mos Burger is probably the best fast food chain in the world - everything tastes fresh and yummy! (By the way, "mos" sounds funny, but it just stands for Mountains, Ocean, Sky.) I had the spicy cheeseburger, and it was so delicious! I was also amused by the signs everywhere with their slogan, "Hamburger is my life" - it was a great lunch. Soon we were back at Matt & Kumiko's apartment, resting to prepare for the dinner of a lifetime. That evening we made the short walk to Kumiko's parents' wonderful apartment to enjoy a huge meal, expertly prepared by Okaasan (mother)! Every dish was amazing, and there were so many of them (I didn't even get pictures of them all)! We had broccoli shrimp salad, salmon with peppers, beef wrapped in lettuce, fried daikon radish (whoops, actually rinkon - lotus root!) with pork (these might have been my favorite), a seaweed salad, spinach, and sushi! Of course, there was beer with dinner, plus Nihonshu (what we call sake), and then Otousan broke out the expensive bottle of whisky! I presented my gifts to them, and they enjoyed looking at some pictures of Texas in the photo books. It was so nice to eat and drink and speak Japanese (though I made several mistakes, which I blame on the booze!), and Otousan was having a great time posing for the camera and fooling me with magic tricks. We also looked at family photos, and I liked seeing Kumiko and Kazuomi as kids. After all that food and fun, it was time to go home - I'm sure it took me at least three seconds to fall asleep. View photos: Day 6 Labels: japan, photos, trips


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