Waking up at the crack of dawn is not my idea of a good time
but I’m still dealing with that pesky thing called jet-lag and so I was up by
6am and sat in bed wishing I was still asleep until breakfast started at
7. The hotel offers two types of
breakfast: Japanese and Western. Being the adventurous girl I am I chose
Western and Dom chose Japanese. I’m not sure where these people learned what
breakfast is supposed to be but wherever it was I have never been there. They
offer a soup of the day and a pasta salad, not quite my idea of the breakfast
of champions. I grabbed some toast and some yogurt (which ended up being warm
and disgusting), and had Dom get some rice for me. His breakfast was pretty
frightening, including options for raw eggs, black beans and some mystery
vegetables, seafood, something that may or may not have been a potato, miso
soup, and a special Japanese rice dish of some sort. I was glad I picked the
Western option as odd as it was.
After breakfast we headed back to our room to try to plan out
the day. It was raining in Osaka so we checked out the forecast for all of the
cities included in our rail pass and decided to head to Nara as it was the only
place not expecting rain. Once we had finally decided on a destination we
headed across the street to the train station and a little over an hour later
we were in the magical city of Nara.
I didn’t do much research before we arrived so I wasn’t
really sure what to expect but in the end I was happy we decided to go,
although our timing could have been better. In Japan New Years is celebrated
from January 1st through the 4th and during this time
many residents make their way to local temples for their first visit of the
year. We were not aware of this fact and got stuck in pedestrian traffic at a
temple for a period of time. Although it was pretty amazing to see I am not a
fan of big crowds and found myself desperately wanting to escape.
The area we spent time in was full of temples, shrines, and
museums, and also a very large deer population. Growing up in Canada I was
always taught not to feed the wildlife, a rule that doesn’t seem to exist here.
Every few meters there seemed to be a stall where you could buy ‘deer cookies’.
Dom suggested we buy some so he could get a picture of me with a deer, I declined
and said he could get a picture of me with a deer in the distance, I don’t care
how much time they spend around humans, they are still wild animals. A few
seconds after this conversation we saw a girl with a handful of cookies feed
one to a deer. The deer wanted more so it looked at the girl and when it didn’t
get what it wanted it head-butted the girl in leg. Luckily all of the deer seem
to have shed their antlers for the season but I still felt bad for the girl.
She laughed it off then tried to give her cookies away to other people
including myself, I declined and continued to keep a safe distance from the
deer.
We wandered around Nara for about 3 hours seeing many
temples and shrines along the way. Many of the paths were lined with booths
selling the most incredible smelling street meat. If you know me, or have even
read my past blogs you know I love me some street meat but with hundreds of
deer roaming around I didn’t think it was best to have something that smelled
so delicious in my hands so we decided to forgo the food until we left the
city.
After wee had seen all of what we thought Nara had to offer
we hopped on a train to Kyoto, the forecast there was for rain but we decided
to chance it anyway. It ended up being
sunny when we arrived so we decided we would stay for a bit but I was on a
mission to get some cash and since learning the best options to do so were to
find a 7-11 or a post office I had my eyes peeled for both. We found a 7-11 in
Nara but the minimum withdrawal was ¥10,000 which was
a little to rich for my blood so I decided to keep looking. We found a post
office right next to the train station in Kyoto and I got super excited until I
found out that the bank portion was closed for New Years and I still couldn’t
get any money.
I was feeling a little defeated by
this point and kind of wanted to head home but didn’t want the trip to Kyoto to
be a complete waste so we travelled back a few stops to Inari to check out the
temple there. It was even more crowded than the temple in Nara, and I later
learned that millions of people visit this temple during the New Years period.
It was so crowded that I didn’t even realize that there were hiking trails
behind the temple that led you up a mountain.
I did however make a few observations at the
various temples we visited throughout the day and after doing some research
back at the hotel I learned a few things. In Nara I saw a woman splashing water
on a Buddha statue outside one of them temples and while I couldn’t find
information pertaining to this exactly I found something that might explain it.
In South-East Asia they celebrate New Years later in the year and during this
time a water festival is celebrated. People run around splashing water on each
other believing it washes bad luck away. I think it is possible the two things
could be linked but I could be wrong, if you know more than me please feel free
to comment and let me know.
Another thing I noticed was the
massive line-ups at all the temples.
There was a constant ringing of bells that appeared to be coming from
the end of the line so it appeared people were waiting to ‘ring in’ the New
Year so to speak. After doing some reading it looks like there was more to that
as well. During the first shrine or temple visit of the New Year people dispose
of old luck charms, and buy new ones before praying in the main hall. I also
learned that on New Years Eve the temple bells are rung 108 times corresponding
with the Buddhist concept of 108 worldly desires, I’m fairly confident the bell
rang far more than 108 times during our visit but still an interesting bit of
information.
After a lot of walking and trying
to understand traditions without speaking the language we were both pretty
exhausted so decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel. We’re about
to head out again so hopefully I will have more fun stories to tell tomorrow.
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