We take the JR from Kyoto Station to Nara to visit the big Buddha at Todaiji. What an impressive sight. The bronze sitting Buddha is 160 feet tall. Eleven smaller figures are carved into the golden halo behind him. Lots of school kids. We follow about 60 4 year olds into the first entrance.
Japanese school children are adorable. Why is that? They are certainly more well behaved than American ones. We don’t see exasperated teachers trying to calm a few disruptive ones, as we might observe in an American classroom. All the kiddies have little straw hats with elastic bands under their chins. They all wear little backpacks & hold hands as they walk. They’re extremely cute. The Japanese adolescents & teenagers are dressed in black & white uniforms. The adolescents look awkward; they’re tall, but they’ve still got a bit of baby fat on them. The girls’ skirts are calf length, very modest. The high school girls have shorter skirts & long knee socks. They are more fashionable with dangly things hanging from their trendy vinyl shoulder bags. Some teenage boys gel their hair so that it looks mussed - deliberate spikes on the top of their head point in every direction. Some also sag their skinny black slacks & leave their shirts untucked. These kids are restless in a different way than the younger school children. They are cliquish, travel in small herds. We identify the class clowns very quickly. But, on the whole, all these students are still a gazillion times more well behaved than American ones.
After admiring the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), we head back to the bus station. We allow only one temple visit in Nara today. Robby is excited about feeding the fearless but gentle deer that walk among the tourists. We buy some deer food (open-faced fortune-cookie-like biscuits) & Robby walks over to a herd lying in the shade. About four deer get up & begin following him closely, poking at his arm with their noses. He freaks out when one nips him in the shirt. Fear makes them more excited.
Subway to Inari, just south of Kyoto Station. We are there to see the famous Fushimi-Inari Shrine, where tens of thousands of red toriis (Shinto gates) line paths that lead to the top of a mountain. I walk the trail counting the tightly packed gates, and at 780, Robby takes over. He counts until 1130 until we both give up. There are split trails with more red toriis, so it is impossible to count all of them. The walk is peaceful but tiring for us. My legs feel like soft rubber by the time we return to the base. By then, we’ve met a nice couple, Mark & Carmen. We make some good conversation; since they have reached the end of their trip, they advise us about our future destinations. At the bottom, we resume our friendly conversation with Rob, an animated & talkative Scottish Canadian who sells handmade jewelry from a cart. He gives us the insightful perspective of an ex-pat. Having lived in Japan for 32 years (he came when he was 18), he got married, had children, & discovered that he could not live a salary man’s life. Now he is married to a Filipina who makes jewelry for him to sell at the base of this famous shrine. He said that he feels very grateful for what Japan has taught him, but there is a line that he can never cross. He will always be an outsider, & he will never acquire the Japanese cultural mentality. We’ve been told that no matter how long one has lived in Japan, the Japanese will always see her has an outsider, even correct her perfect Japanese. That’s just how insular & homogenous the society is here. Rob sounds weary of his life as an ex-pat, but Japan is the only home he knows.
From Fushimi-Inari Shrine, we head back to the Gojo Guesthouse for some rest. Tonight will be late night for us. We spend the evening hanging out at Rub a Dub, the reggae bar we visited the night before. Because tonight is Friday, the tiny bar is packed by 11:30pm. Robby, the social butterfly who never ceases to bring people together, has arranged for us to meet some of the interesting people we’ve encountered in Kyoto: Mark & Carmen from Germany, the Swedish couple who just arrived & are staying next door, Mai & Yohai, two clerks at Gojo Guesthouse. We also meet up with Masa & Saiga (sp?), our favorite bartenders at Rub a Dub. Dancing begins at midnight when the reggae rhythms pick up, tables are moved to the edge of the room, and people get down. Robby & I couldn’t be happier.
We leave the establishment at 2:30am and walk home with Mai & a Frenchman she brought who had just arrived at Gojo. Mai is an incredibly free-spirited and open young woman who sports messy dreadlocks. She lived in Holland for a bit & has traveled all over Europe. Robby says that she reminds him of his childhood friend Ninja. Every issue moves her passionately & she thinks & curses like a European. In Japan, she is a fish out of water. This year, she will travel the world & hopefully find a place to teach Japanese. She is an adorable hippie who defies the status quo Japan.
We are meant to stay the night in Nara, but because we are so tired of shrines and because Robby love Gojo Guesthouse & its employees, we cancel our reservation at Seikan-so & stay one more night.
In bed by 3am. Good night!
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