My religion class and I took a day trip to Nara today to see Todaiji Temple and the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) - not to mention all the deer! The trip was fun but a bit tiring as well.
Nara was Japan's first permanent capital (or so they hoped back in those days). The capital would later be moved to Kyoto and then to Tokyo. Nara is famous for its Shika Coen or deer park. This is actually simply the temple grounds where hundreds of deer of all walks of life roam free, nibble at your back packs and look at you with big wide deer eyes that say, "Please feed me specially formulated 150 Yen packs of deer crackers."
Some people find the deer to be traumatic because they generally chase after you and get pretty aggressive when it comes to those crackers, but I like them. Every now and then you see a mother sweep her crying kid up into her arms as the swarm of deer circle around the kid, lunging for treats, and moving in for the kill. My friend Michiko (a Kyoto University student whose auditing the class) was scared of them.
The deer are trained to bow. Sometimes you can get them to bow for their crackers like proper gentlemen. Other times they team up on you like the raptors from Jurassic Park. The 150 yen pack of crackers you hide behind your back while teasing the deer in front of you with a delicious morsel can be inhaled in an instant by one of his covert buddies without your knowledge.
In addition to the Shika Coen, there is also the Daibutsu or Great Buddha. The pictures below do a far better job of describing this amazing rendering of the Buddha than I can in this post.
After the structured course stuff, some center kids and I went to have okonomiyaki at a nearby place. It was quite yummy. After that I hopped on a train and came back to Kyoto. Class tomorrow morning. Ugh.
Next Up: Drinking with Japanese businessmen - you think I'm an alcoholic...just wait.
Stay Tuned!
B.E.W.
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