Nara and the attack deer!

I decided to take a day trip out to the city of Nara for my last day of exploring. I packed up all my stuff, checked out of my hostel but left my bags, and walked to the train around 10:30am. I grabbed a chocolate croissant (no eel today) for breakfast, and got to the main station around 11:15…I read there was a 30 minute direct express train to Nara, and a Japanese man saw me staring at the ticket machine and told me I was in the right place and that it took 45 minutes. I grabbed a ticket and boarded the train…and quickly realized I was NOT on the direct express. I was on the slow, local train, but by the time I had figured it out I was a few stations away, and figured it wasn’t worth the trip back to the main station if it was only a difference of 15 minutes.

Little did I know, it would take me almost 2 hours on the local train! 45 minutes in I had no idea where I was, and had no map of the train line this far outside Kyoto. I asked someone on the train, and they said Nara was still 45 minutes away, so I attempted to be patient and enjoy the idyllic countryside slowly crawling by the train windows.  I had to switch trains twice, but I finally made it! I was a little bummed though, because I had to get back to Kyoto around 4pm to make it to Tokyo the same evening, so it left little time for seeing the city of Nara after my epic direct-train failure.

But I quickly cheered up when I saw Nara’s most famous residents: the wild deer that roam the streets! The deer were believed to be sacred because one of the Gods was said to have appeared to guard the shrine and was riding on white deer. They are so funny! My first glimpse of them came when I saw a group of school kids hand feeding them. You can buy deer wafers for 150 yen and feed the packs of deer…but they are pretty aggressive! I watched them swarm the kids and a few unsuspecting tourists with biscuits as a walked to Nara’s other main attraction: another giant Buddha!

This giant Buddha is housed in one of Japan’s oldest and biggest all-wooden buildings, which is a sight to see itself. The architecture of the building was beautiful, with its ornately carved wooden accents, sloping tiled roof, and interesting golden “horns” (?) capping the top. When you walk through the humongous wooden doors into the cool, dark shade of the temple and look up, the HUGE Buddha is sitting peacefully in the center of the cavernous building surrounded by lotus sculptures. It was quite affecting, and I was definitely a little awed by the scale and serenity of the Buddha.

The interior of the building itself was pretty plain, but there were other ornate wooden sculptures of fierce warriors flanking both sides of the towering idol. In one corner of the building, one of the wooden columns has a large hole through it near the ground. It is rumored that the hole is the same size as one of the Buddha’s nostrils, and that those who can wriggle through it are afforded good luck! The children going through it looked like they were struggling, with most lying down and reaching their hands above their heads to get pulled through the narrow opening by their friends on the other side. I opted to pass on this opportunity…

I made my way back outside and after buying some biscuits, gathered my courage to feed the deer. As soon as I exchanged my money with the little old lady selling the wafers, I was surrounded! There were deer everywhere!! I threw the biscuits in my bag and escaped the crowd of deer, hoping to find a spot outside the temple where I wouldn’t immediately be outnumbered and attacked!

When I finally found a few calm looking deer outside the temple gate, I passed my camera to a fellow tourist and snuck a deer biscuit out of my bag. I thought I was pretty slick, but the deer were on to me, and I was again quickly encircled by overly pushy deer! Within seconds they were nudging me, nipping at my bag, and even head butting me! One started biting my shorts, and actually gave me a pretty good chomp right through my clothes!

I had to retreat, but it wasn’t soon enough, and I had wet spots on the front and back of my shorts from where the deer were basically chewing on me! They were not to be underestimated!

The warnings...and me ignoring them and getting attacked by deer!!

I tried one more time a few minutes later with a very small group, but I got prodded by antlers as soon as I whipped out a biscuit, and ran away soon thereafter.

Feeling a bit defeated, I wandered towards another shrine. This one was famous for the thousands of stone lanterns that line the surrounding paths, and the stroll through the verdant park with all the mossy lanterns was a nice change compared to the overly crowded areas near the Buddha.


The shrine itself was small, but inside there were hundreds and hundreds of metal and gold lanterns hanging. I assumed they were being stored inside the shrine for the upcoming Lantern Festival in August.

Since I had taken the world’s slowest train, I was running short on time. After the lanterns I started back toward the station, and took the long way through the large park that paralleled the main road. There were small ponds with gazebos overlooking the water, grassy lawns, a few historic pagodas, and lots of deer. I gave one last attempt at feeding them (I just wanted to get rid of the leftover crackers), but was surrounded by lots of antlers and ended up just desperately dumping them on the ground and running away!


I made it back to the train station, purchased a ticket on the REAL express train back to Kyoto, grabbed a to go box of sushi, and boarded the comfy train for my (short) ride back. It was MUCH faster than my earlier trip, and before I knew it I was back to the main Kyoto station.


I headed back to the hostel, grabbed my bags, went back to the train, got back to the main station, got another bullet train ticket, and waited for my train back to Tokyo! I was cutting it kind of close…I got a 6pm train and I was told it took 2.5 hours to get to the main Tokyo station, but I had to check into my new hostel by 9pm!
I was glad to have a chance to see the countryside though, and even though it was grey out and dusk was settling over the fields, the ride was pretty! There were small towns and villages along the tracks, and the rolling green hills in the distance were really neat!

Lunch!

It was a fast trip, and we were soon approaching Tokyo. I had to switch trains twice to get to my hostel (bullet train to Tokyo Metro, to Tokyo Subway - confusing!), but I got off the last train at 8:55pm, and speedwalked to my hostel. I made it just as they were closing up, and was shown to my room. I was pretty sweaty from hauling my bags through the hot subway and hustling to the hostel, and it was humid and stuffy in my 4-bunk room.

I changed into some shorts, grabbed the “free drink” ticket I got when I checked in, and got out of the room as fast as possible! The hostel bar was a few blocks away, and was shared by the two other sister hostels. It was small and packed, and as soon as I ordered my free sake I was invited to sit at a table full of Bolivians and Australians who had just arrived to Japan. Since it was my last night in Tokyo and my last night in Japan (boo!), I wanted to get out a bit. I had yet to see the crazy area of town that was famous for all it’s video game arcades and anime fans, so I invited them to come with me and explore.

Dinner!

We finished our drinks and 3 of them decided they were still awake enough to come out. We hopped on the train to Akihabara, the neighborhood famous for electronics, arcades and anime/comic book/cartoon fanatics. I was hoping to see people everywhere dressed up as ridiculous characters, but we quickly discovered that weeknights were not a happening time for the neighborhood and were disappointed by the deserted streets. The arcades were still open, and we walked through a couple of them.

The Sega Arcade

The ones we chose were also pretty quiet, but I was astonished by how smoky they were! The few people in them were smoking like chimneys, and the arcades had more cigarette smoke hanging in them than most of the bars I had experienced in Japan!

None of us were huge video game enthusiasts, so after some wandering and observation of the locals, we stopped for some dessert. I had a yummy crepe filled with bananas, chocolate and whipped cream that was pretty delicious. One of the other guys ordered octopus balls (like meat balls?) at the food stall next to the crepe vendor, and we sat on a bench and people watched the few passerbys for a while.

It was late, and we were all tired, so we gave up and all headed back to our places. After a cold shower, I climbed into my bunk and went to bed! I thought I would have trouble sleeping since there was no AC in the hostel (how did I not notice that on the website?!), but fortunately I was exhausted, and went right to sleep!

The Tokyo Skytree and the Asahi Beer building by night