Fall Break: Pt. 2 -- Better than before!

Side comment: I ATE FISH SPINE YESTERDAY.

Moving forward.

So much for catching up on sleep over break.

We took the local train to Nara, which is to the south of Nagoya. (For only 1700 yen it was definitely a deal.) The train took us through the real boonies of Japan -- despite how crappy the towns looked (endless rice paddies, abandoned factories) it was nice to see that Japan isn't some kind of Stepford country.

Nara was the terminus of the silk road in Japan and was the capital of the country back in the 790s. Here's an example of how wealthy the city was:

That pagoda was RESTORED in 1719.

As you can see, the weather was not too fantastic when we got there. Shortly after this picture was taken (and on our way to Toudaiji, the most famous temple in Nara) it basically pissed rain. Since we hadn't expected to check in to our hostel 'til 9, all of our stuff got wet.


Nara is also famous for its deer. As in Miyajima, since deer are considered messengers of the gods (Princess Mononoke, anyone?) they're allowed to roam the city (they mostly stick to the touristy parts, though, since that's where the deer food dealers tend to hang out.) Here's one fellow waiting for food in the rain:


Unfortunately, by the time we got to Toudaiji, it was closed. We checked into the hostel early and dried off. The only other foreigner staying there was a Canadian named Mike who spoke about two words of Japanese, so we invited him to dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant.

The next day we got up bright and early to see Toudaiji. The temple is massive, which is good since it needs to house a gigantic Buddha statue. Here's his hand:


Most of the important shrines in the city are lumped together in a large park. We spent our only full day in the city walking through the park. We also climbed Mt. Wakakusa. It only looked like a small hill from the bottom.


This is not a trick of the camera; the hill is actually that steep.

In one of the shrines we had visited earlier, I befriended some middle-schoolers (we taught each other the word for "maple tree" -- or momoji). They were from Osaka, which is known for the yakuza (Japanese mafia) and cheap goods (connection?) Osaka has a special dialect; it's basically the equivalent of a Bronx accent. They taught me "nan de ane?!" which basically translates into "Hey! What the fuck?"

While we were climbing the trail we ran into those kids again. They saw me first and called out, "Hey! Hey! Nan de ane?!"

The ensuing conversation was basically this:

"What the fuck?"
"What the fuck?!"
"What the FUCK?!"
"What the fuck!"

Living proof that not all Japanese middle schoolers are trolls, just the ones exchange students have to live with.

Climbing the mountain was probably the high point of my time here so far. Here's one of many pictures:


Nara is small but it's a really cool city. There are art galleries, independent fashion designers, clubs, indie record stores...all of the stuff a city is supposed to have...unless you live in Nagoya. Or so I thought.

The guest house we stayed at was a fantastic place -- I almost had more fun chilling with the other guests than I did wandering around Nara. One of the women I met was interested in Buddhist art, so she quit her job and published a book on Buddhist statues for the layman. Another guy was an architect from Tokyo who grew vegetables on his terrace. On the second night we were talking about cheap places to stay and he turns to one of the other guests (whom we had just met) and said, "Hey, how do you say 'love hotel' in English?" Winner of the best Japanese sentence I have ever heard.

I felt disappointed when I left Nara since it was nice to see a city with some kind of subculture. After class on Wednesday (we got back Tuesday night), one of my friends and I took a walk around the neighborhood near Nanzan and found a store called Village Vanguard (named after the bar in New York, I assume) -- it's like Ricky's or Hot Topic in the sense that it's pre-packaged counterculture, but the manga selection is incredible -- all of the "indie" stuff that you'd have to wade through the Shonen Jump to find anywhere else. They also have some indie music. So next time I feel like I have money to burn, I'm planning on heading there. All I had to do was look a little harder.

Only five more weekends here...I guess I'll spend them looking for the counterculture in Nagoya. But tomorrow, I'm off to Kyoto!