BEWARE! The Deer Poop

Golden Week has come and gone. There has not been a peep from me for the past week or so because I was very much AFK, and in another prefecture to boot. But first, Nara and the deer.

Two Mondays ago, Colleen and I FINALLY got our bums over to Nara. We had been meaning to go to Nara together ever since we first met; other things came up so we never got the chance to go over the March vacation.

Nara is famous for its deer; in pre-Buddhist times, deer were sacred. In Nara Koen (which was made from a wasteland in 1880) there are abut 1200 deer that roam freely. There are very much at home and Zen-ish with their surroundings; there were people going up tot he deer and touching their antlers, or even large families gathering around a lounging deer and taking a photo. It was a nice day, and the first day of Golden Week that was officially an "off day" ("Greenery Day") so there were tourists about, and the usual school groups. It never fails; no matter what time of day, no matter what day of the week, one is always guaranteed to see at least 5 kids in school uniform - neatly pressed if it was morning, skirts rolled up and pants around the butt in the afternoon or evening. It gets better - not only will you see at least 5 schoolkids, they are always in groups. This is especially true of junior-high and high-schoolers.

Before getting to Nara, Colleen and I had to find the train station in Kyoto. It wasn't the basic JR station, but rather a private one - the Kintetsu line. Easier and cheaper to get to Nara from there, and both Kintetsu/JR start at Kyoto Station so we still had to take the bus down (Keihan line is right by us so we can always walk it if we want to go to Osaka). It took us about 45 minutes to find the damn station, as the signs were all wrong. What was funny was that Colleen was asking be about a particular dirty word "eroi" and what it's meaning was; obviously I had no clue what it was so instead of hushed tones, I said "Eroi?" in a normal voice, and right before I hushed up quickly, I saw a troupe of teenage boys look at me in surprise. Turns out "eroi" (I think at least) is a pretty harmless word for anything to do with "erotic" but the Japanese have such wierd views of pornography (One can freely get pornographic manga and read it publicly on the train, yet I can't say "eroi" in public) that it is a bit taboo.

Back to the deer. One had to be very much aware of the deer poop, obviously. I was wearing sandals too because it was such a nice day, I had to be careful of my feet too. But the deer were very placid. And very spoiled. There is a special sembei cracker for the deer (though I saw some parents feeding them to their kids) and people feed the deer. Some deer actually REFUSED, as if saying "No thanks, I am quite full and content right now." If the noise was getting to them they didn't let on. However, if there was food near them, they midly pounced. One kid was eating ice cream and wasn't paying attention to the deer right behind him; before you knew it the deer knocked the ice cream out of the kids hand and even though it fell into the dirt, the deer happily licked it up. Talk about sneaky. Everyone around, myself included, started laughing.

There were two main stops on our trip: Todaiji and Kasuga Taisha. Both are World Heitage Sites; Todaiji is the largest wooden building in the world (and the one right now is only 2/3 the original size) and inside is the largest Buddha in all of Japan - the Daibutsu. The building and the Buddha are big. Really, really big. I actually said "Whoa" when I saw first the building, then the Buddha. Before Colleen and I walked inside, I went and lit an incense stick for my grandfather, since I couldn't light a candle for him back at Easter, since the church was closed.
After Big Buddha, we then headed to Kasuga Taisha, built in the 8th century, just as the city was found in 794. There are other shrines as well surrounding the area and at one point, Colleen and I just sat down on a bench and listened to the chanting Shinto priests. We were the only ones there and it was dead quiet, sans priests. IT was very peaceful and rather soporific, yet relaxing - sort of like those Gregorian Monk Cds that you find in the New Age section of the music store.

Something in a small nook that was easily visible from our seats caught our eye:Trust me, you want to click on it for a better look. And yes, that is what you think they are. Colleen and I put our heads together and after a Eureka! moment, I recognized the characters for pregnancy.

Those particular wooden placards were a few feet away from musubi placards in the shape of hearts, where people pray and wish for love.

Chuckling, we headed back to the train station and stopped at Daiso, a 100yen shop. Ingram told us that we had to go to this particular 100yen shop, more than any other World Heritage Site. "Deer? Big Buddha? Forget that, go to DAISO." TWO whole FLOORS of 100yen (or max 800 for larger things) stuff! I spent like $40 and got alot of crap, but really useful crap. God bless 100yen stores.