Witch women

I was in Nara until a few hours ago.

I like Nara! It is a city, for sure, but it does not contain the typical towering monoliths every which way and, I dunno, it is a small city. I like small when it comes to cities!

Last night, I met Kira and we ate katsudon (my first time since coming back from Korea!!) and then wandered around for a while. It was late, so everything was closed! Except for food.

But before that, I walked around in Nara Park for a couple hours, and it was nice. I narrowly avoided deer droppings multiple times.

Speaking of deer droppings... The deer in Nara are protected by law. And also a popular tourist attraction. For a mere buck fiddy, one can purchase a bundle of deer snacks from one of many stalls guarded by elderly women. If one chooses to do so, one will be immediately mobbed by a multitude of deer. What is a group of deer called?

I watched in great amusement as various tourists bought deer snacks and then yelped in surprise.

My question is what the hell voodoo magic are those old women using to ward off the deer horde. I suspect they wield those poop-sweeping brooms with deadly accuracy, but I sadly have no evidence to support my theory.

Ahem.

I also visited a temple, of course. It wouldn't be vacation (apparently) if I didn't visit an old cultural premise every day.

At the temple, I took a picture of something when the sign said no pictures. I'm such a rebel! But then I went to the temple's museum, with a half-empty bottle of Coke in hand. I noticed an exceptional number of guards (or what amounts to guards, I suppose) around the place, and because I was trying to find the right time to sneak more pictures, I made note of where they all were. But getting a picture was impossible. After resolving myself to this, I sighed wistfully and opened the bottle for a sip.

The sound of the carbonation escaping drew the ire of a veritable mob of Japanese museum guards. I think the one actually jumped out of his chair!

In true comedic fashion, I stared wide-eyed and nonchalantly put the cap back on. Satisfied, they returned to their stations, and I awkwardly explored the rest of the displays.

Today, however, I went to see Nara's Big Buddha. So now I've seen... Tokyo's, Kyoto's, and Nara's. I am a certifiable Big Buddha Expert. It was nothing special, I gotta say.

I lie, it was pretty spectacular. And big.

But now I am in Hiroshima, and having rested, I will go out and visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Genbaku Dome.

All I'm sayin' is it's a little hot, okay.

Phew.

At first I did a great job of following the schedule I'd laid out for myself (and by that I mean stolen from some blog somewhere recommending sights to see).

The day began with a trip to Yasaka Shrine. The first item on my list! I arrived, and entered a world of street-side vendors displaying their goods to the passersby. Jesus would've been proud.

It was somehow worse than Asakusa Shrine in Tokyo (and I don't necessarily mean worse in a negative way), because in Asakusa the countless stores have an air of permanence around them, as if they've been around since the dawn of time. (I'll conveniently ignore the last stretch of shops, which generally sell food, and are taken down at the end of each day.) Asakusa stores also form a sort of path leading up to the shrine. At Yasaka, all of the shops look to be constructed anew each morning, and more openly invade the grounds, as it were - creeping along several paths leading inward.

All things come to an end, though, and so did the shops. Deeper in the shrine, more familiar sights could be found. The color orange! Prayers! And on the other side of the shrine, a park, wherein I discovered: an ancient automobile, kept in excellent condition; a weeping cherry tree, looking to be half dead; and a group of Falun Dafa practitioners doin' their thang beneath a sign that read, simply, "Falun Dafa is Good!"

Too at an end was my visit to Yasaka Shrine; I moved on.

It is at this point that I got lost looking for Ishibe-Koji lane! Amidst my confusion, I later realized, I actually walked along it multiple times. I spotted a few geisha, but didn't get any quality pictures of them. Also, I'm not sure if they were "real" geisha or not. I've read that real geisha do not pose for pictures (which makes sense - they have a job to do!), but these geisha did. I didn't see any geisha who didn't. Also, they may have been apprentice geisha (i.e., maiko, as I learned only last week)! On the offchance that they were "real", I did not ask for pictures. I'm not an ass! Also I fear people.

Oh, speaking of geisha, as I was leaving the area to go eat lunch, I spied with my little eye some foreigner following these two geisha. He asked for a picture, and they posed. But then! He followed them for like five minutes. This was on the other side of the street from me, so I was able to see the whole thing. He commented on how hard it must be to walk in those shoes, among other things. It was pretty great!

Next up: Kodai-Ji. Only I took a slight detour and followed a large crowd of Japanese people up a hill. When I reached the top, I suddenly felt awkward and out of place. In front of me lay the largest Japanese graveyard I'd ever seen. I knew this weekend was Obon, and so many families had likely come to Kyoto to tend to their family's graves, as is tradition. So I hear. It was uncomfortable, intruding on these people paying respect to their ancestors. I took one picture of the graveyard before leaving. Had it been any time other than Obon, maybe I would have wandered in and gotten a closer look, but... I didn't want to be That Guy. You know.

So back to my original plan: Kodai-Ji. Therein I found the emptiest Japanese graveyard I've ever seen. So much open space! More grass than grave stones! This being a tourist attraction, I felt no awkwardness at all and got as close as was allowed. Of course! Also of note: paintings of demons of every sort, a zen rock garden, lots of green stuff, and the distant view of my next destination...

Ryozen Kannon. Kyoto's Big Buddha. It was big, there's no denying that! Lower to the ground, off to the side, there was a large golden ball. I watched in bewilderment as several Japanese people dropped some money in a container and touched the ball in prayer. Just one of those things, I guess.

Yasaka Pagoda was next in line! Somewhere, I lost my way, again (read: I couldn't find it). So I gave up and followed this rather large Japanese-style building down an alley-way. I'd been catching glimpses of it all day today and yesterday, and it piqued my interest.

I followed the road and found myself on Sannenzaka Slope. The destination after Yasaka Pagoda. How'd that happen? I dunno.

The Slope is a shopping center of sorts. Tanuki statues, Obon lanterns, and other such decorations line the streets. Here it was more crowded than anywhere else I'd been. Whether it was due to the time of day or the location, I can't say.

At the top of the Slope was Kiyomizudera - not on my agenda, but since I was there, anyway... The temple was larger than the others I'd visited and also on the side of a short mountain. Lots of ground to explore. Great views of Kyoto.

Now exhausted from a day of sightseeing (traveling alone wears me out so fast!), I headed back to Amenity Hotel and crawled into my box.

Here I lay, once again, hijacking the power from the TV to keep my laptop charged. Now I sleep once again. Tomorrow is a new day, and I will go to a new hotel! With a real bed. D: