Deer Season

One of my favorite things to do is to go camping. When in Minnesota, I try to plan at least one trip a year up to the Boundary Waters. As beautiful as that place is, after more than an extended weekend, all of the lakes and trees kind of start to look the same. As ridiculous as it may sound, the same thing happens with these Temples and Shrines. Some are quite different and well worth the price of admission, especially the free ones. Todai-ji in Nara, we felt was the latter kind.

From Kyoto we took a day trip south to Nara via an hour long train. Nara was the capital of Japan for like 3 seconds in the 700s. Some people say there is a good two days worth of sights to see. We had about half a day so we focused on Todai-ji Temple. The temple complex and the structure itself were pretty impressive. Originally built in the 700somethings, it has been destroyed over and over from fire, and earthquakes, wars etc. What is there now was rebuilt in the early 1700s. They say it is the largest wooden structure in the world. Once inside there is a 50 foot bronze Buddha-also the largest of it's kind.

But the main attraction in Nara are the Sika Deer. Deer in Nara are the equivalent of pigeons in New York City, or Sea Gulls in Florida. There are literally deer everywhere. The entire city is a giant petting zoo. Apparently these deer are regarded as messangers of the gods and roam around freely. As holy as they are, there are still some signs letting you know that despite all of their antlers being removed, the deer are in-fact wild animals and that you should exercise caution. And as wild animals you should ignore the many vendors selling crackers and not feed the deer. This suggestion is completely followed.

The deer themselves have the system down pat. They will walk right up to you, pause, and if you have nothing in your hands, they move on. However, if you have anything even slightly edible, they go for it. Maps, shopping bags, you name it. And don't linger if you do have food. They will find you.

Some of the deer even give the traditional Japanese bow, either on demand or unsolicited before requesting food. A few hours walking through the parks and markets and we were off to Osaka for the night.

Osaka was not originally on our itinerary. But after realizing we could not plan the rest of our trip in Japan, and then Korea, and then China all within the first few days that we were in Tokyo, we made a pit stop in Osaka to apply for our Chinese visas at the Chinese Consulate office there. It was really more processing of paperwork than applying. To get our visas we needed to show proof of travel into China and proof of where we were staying. So we needed to have our flight and accommodation booked. Other than that it was a basic one page itinerary roughly describing where we were going and when, copy of passport, copy of drivers license, etc. Pretty easy and we were done in 20 minutes. Actually obtaining the visas needed 4 days of processing time, which we didn't have, so we expedited them for a "finish it faster" fee and planned our return for the following Monday to pick them up. Until then, China held our passports and our fate of being allowed into the country. We planned to spend the weekend in Hiroshima while waiting for our visas to process, and again, the nightbus was our transportation of choice. So, we had a day to kill in Osaka.

After a nap in a park, like your average homeless/transient/residentially challenged person, the rest of the day in Osaka was spent milking the cheapest drink we could get at Starbucks in order to abuse their free wifi all day. Luckily this particular Starbucks was at a great location on a main street corner in a very busy business district. It was great to relax for a few hours, connect with some people, and take care of some business.

Off to Hiroshima on the nightbus,

From Nara, with love.

Will + Sara

That reminds me, the bus station, really more of a waiting area/lounge was in a pretty cool tower called the Umeda Building. Google it real quick. They have an observatory and some botanical gardens at the top. The escalators themselves were pretty cool.

#nara #japan #osaka #chinavisa