The word of the day is…. Deer!

If you’ve been to this place, you can probably already tell from the title where I spent my last day of Silver Week. Mayu, my conversation partner from back at Alabama, took me to Nara, which is a little ways to the southeast of Osaka.

Nara, which was Japan’s first capital, is a place full of temples, many of which are World Heritage Sites. However, the town is also full of deer. According to my guidebook, there are 1,200 of them in Nara. In pre-Buddhist times, they were seen as messengers of the gods, and even now they are considered National Treasures. I found out that if we had gone a week or two later, sometime in October, we would have been able to see the annual antler cutting festival. …I might have to go back for this. I haven’t decided yet.

But more on deer later. After the long train ride to Nara, we sleepily headed up the stairs from the station to a quaint little town, with trees bordering the road and little mom and pop souvenir shops and restaurants. Walking a little way, we arrived at Kofuku-ji temple. (Random note: “ji” means temple, so it’s a little redundant to say Kofuku-ji temple. Or Kinkaku-ji temple. Temple temple.)

Kofuku-ji is home to two pagodas, one three stories and one five stories, which is the second tallest in Japan. Evidently the one I visited in Toji with the flea market beats it out by just a few centimeters.

There is also a National Treasure Hall at Kofuku-ji with several statues. Many of the temples I’ve been to have these, and in most you aren’t allowed to take pictures inside. It looks pretty big from the outside. (By the way, the print on the curtains on the door is… you guessed it! Deer!)

After Kofuku-ji, we walked about a kilometer to Todai-ji, which I was looking forward to. It houses one of the largest enclosed Buddhas in the world, and is also one of the largest bronze statues in the world. And… the building that it is in is THE largest wooden building in the world, rebuilt in 1709. I had no idea wood could last that long! On the walk there, I saw probably around 35 deer, cars stopping for deer crossing the road, a deer walking in to a souvenir shop (lunch time maybe?), a lady head-butted by a deer and several children feeding deer and subsequently running away from them screaming when 10 more showed up.

Back to Todai-ji; here is the entrance gate:

And the Daibutsu-den itself:

The grounds were immaculate on the walk to the hall. The grass was perfectly green and smooth. When we reached the gate, a large group of tourists (gaijin and Japanese) taking pictures were barring our way, so we stood by the incense burner for a little while before forcing our way in. Their incense can be a little strong sometimes….

And there he was! The huge Buddha, towering 16 meters over my head among his array of offerings and his golden throne (which had mini-pictures of himself all around it[?]).

The images of Buddha in Japan are always ridiculously intricate. This Buddha, like most, is sitting on a lotus flower. Each petal looks like this:

I was in awe of how long it probably took them to make all of this.

After snapping quite a few pictures, we headed out to find somewhere to get a drink. Hey, look! A deer!

I thought this was funny because he’s sitting next to a little stone that has “telephone” carved on it. There were no telephones nearby…

The walkway is beautiful through the park.

We found a huge bell, which Mayu told me they only ring at New Year’s. We tried, but the pole hanging next to it was chained down.

Next down the path was Kasuga Taisha, which is known for its lanterns. People go to this temple to wish/pray for long life. While we were there, there was some sort of martial arts testing going on.

After this, we finally found an adorable thatched-roof tea house where we could get a drink. Mayu ordered matcha for us. It’s really healthy, and doesn’t taste as green as it looks. Next to it is a little block of red bean paste/jelly as a little bit of sweetness to offset the bitter tea.

So, I’ve shown you a couple of pictures of deer already, and I’m sure you’re wondering how close they get, right? Well… this close!

His nose was in front of the camera when I started to take the picture and then he kept moving toward me!

These guys were hanging around too:

By this time, I was ready to gather up my courage and feed them. I paid 150 yen for a bundle of “sembe” and headed off to feed a guy all by himself.

After giving him a couple, I told him goodbye and headed off to find one of his cousins.

But wouldn’t you know it? The first little guy was still hungry and followed me over.

Feeding the deer was awesome fun. Coming from America, it’s something I never thought I would be able to do. I even pet one on the head, though he was a little more interested in the cookie in my hand.

Our last stop was Gango-ji, which for some reason my guidebook says isn’t really worth a visit. I thought it had a beautiful garden.

With that, we headed back home. Before I knew it, Silver Week was over. I had to go back to class… although only for two days and then another weekend! I was already excited for the next weekend because I was going on a class field trip to Asuka!

The Golden Temple

There were still two days of Silver Week left, and we were prepared to cram them full of sightseeing. Cailyn had read a book about a temple called Kinkaku-ji, which happened to be the #1 sight in my Japan and Kyoto guidebooks. I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see this “golden” temple. (The “Kin” part of Kinkaku-ji means gold.)

So we all piled on the train, which thankfully was a little less crowded than the day before. We rode to Kyoto, and took a bus from the main station there to the temple. Once again, the bus was ridiculously crowded. What was worse than the train the other day was that this bus seemed to stop every 100 feet, and we were standing near the front, which meant that everyone had to push past us to get off. It was a pretty long trip.

And, once again, the vote was unanimous from the three of us to eat at McDonald’s for lunch. We’re college kids in a foreign country, and it’s cheap. It’s tough to go somewhere more expensive. (Side story: Last night, I told my Okaa-san that I was planning on meeting some friends at Starbucks on Saturday, and she actually recommended McDonald’s because it’s so much cheaper. I thought that was funny.) On the way to McDonald’s, we saw an interesting sight:

After we ate, we went on to the temple. Kinkaku-ji is actually on fairly large grounds compared to some of the other temples I have gone to. And the grounds are beautiful, covered in old trees and moss.


Nothing prepared me for how beautiful the temple would be. It’s something that doesn’t quite show in pictures – so you all need to go for yourself sometime! All of the walls of the temple are completely covered in gold.



There is even a little gold phoenix on top of the temple:

As you can see, the temple is set on a small pond, which on a sunny day would probably reflect the gold. But alas, it was cloudy the day we went. However, everyone is telling us we should go back when it’s snowing. That sounds awesome, so I will probably do so if I have the chance. Anyway, the pond is full of koi fish, which were very sociable.

After we passed the temple, I bought a good luck charm, and we wandered on, taking pictures of other beautiful areas on the grounds.



That last one is my favorite. There was also a spot to try and throw a coin in into a bowl by some statues for good luck. Of course, lucky girl that I am, when I tossed it it hit my thumb and went sailing off to the side. Oh well.

My bad luck continued when I bought a fortune from the boxes near the exit of the temple.

I should have put it in here after I read it.

After we left, we headed back to Kyoto Station and walked around for a little while. We plan to go back soon. More on that later. Then we caught a much less crowded train back to Hirakata City Station.
(The view from Kyoto Station.)

Some rest and some souvenirs

After the day spent at the Kaiyukan, we were all pretty worn out. We decided to take the next day off from sightseeing. I stayed home with my host family, and actually got to spend some time with my host sister, because she had off work thanks to the holiday. Her fiancé came to visit from Tokyo, where he works as an energy and communications engineer… I think. That’s what they kept telling me.

The four of us went together to the father’s grave, because that day was set aside to respect the dead. Okaa-san said he passed on about ten years ago. I wasn’t sure how I would feel standing with them there, but I was really glad they wanted to include me in the visit. Okaa-san told him that I was there with them and that Mai-chan and her boyfriend were getting married. She put new flowers on both sides of the pillar in the middle and then we placed incense in a special holder. Again, I was so happy that they brought me along, even though it was kind of a sad experience. I really felt like one of the family for a little while.

When we got back, we ate ramen and watched some silly Japanese variety show together. It was a nice day.

Monday, I was well rested and ready for another trip. We had made plans to go to Toji temple for the flea market, which takes place on the 21^st of every month. It was always crowded, my guidebook told me, but I knew it would be even more crowded this month due to the holiday.

Toji temple is in Kyoto and boasts the tallest pagoda in Japan, beating the five story pagoda in Nara by a few centimeters (also according to my guidebook).

Notice the sea of heads at the bottom. You wouldn’t believe how crowded it was. On that note, let me backtrack a little.

The train ride to Toji was probably one of the most hilarious, awkward and uncomfortable events in my whole life all at the same time. We got in line for the limited express train to Tambabashi station, and were pretty far back in line. We were standing where the door would be to the double-decker car, but figured that we would have to wait on the next train to come through because we wouldn’t fit behind this large line.

Wrong! People piled in, and we piled in, then more people piled in after us. It almost seemed like some kind of physics paradox. I say “almost” because I knew it wasn’t. Although the amount of people getting in the train, and later back off, was of clown-car-sized proportions, the train car was as big on the inside as it looked from the outside.

We were piled into the middle of the car, away from anywhere to hold on to, with about a square foot of space to put our feet in. I was hanging on to Cailyn and Kelly, for fear of falling on to the seated, older Japanese man behind me, and a random Japanese lady was leaning on me. We stayed this way for probably… 20 minutes. We laughed the whole time. It was the only way for us to keep from suddenly becoming claustrophobic. We wanted to take a photo, but there was no room to reach in our bag and take out our camera…

Anyway, back on track. The market was just a little bit less crowded than the train – we had room to move around and the crowd was moving too.

Vendors were packed in, selling everything from China dishes to glass beads and old rings, and from Magatama to Anpanman or Doraemon bags of cotton candy. (You can see a Doraemon balloon floating above one of the booths in the last picture.) In fact, the booths were so packed in that there were some in the main gate and out on the sidewalks surrounding the temple, which was not an easy place to browse.

After picking up quite a few good souvenirs, we found the part of the temple where there was actually some worshipping going on. There was a Buddhist monk meditating in front of a fire, and people praying in front of various statues. These were the most interesting to me:

People were walking around the turtle, running their hand along his side. And this one:

Which I found out is a replica of one of the statues where Buddha’s remains were rumored to be placed. This one even has a tiny Buddha statue sitting inside.

After that, with my bag a lot heavier though my wallet emptier, we headed back for the day.