Buddhas and Deer and Baths! Oh my!

This weekend was tons of fun! My host family (Otoosan and Okaasan) and I went to several interesting, sightseeing places. Kayoko has midterms all this week, so she stayed home and studied. :(

Saturday we drove to Nara, which is sort of south of Osaka, about 1.5 hours on the terrifying highway and then through some twisty mountain roads. The highway is terrifying for this reason: It's really high. As in, imagine a typical (American highway), then put in on stilts, then add other roads/houses/buildings/fields underneath it, and there you go. It rained the entire day, quite a downpour at times, so I got very very wet, but it was worth it.

First stop was Todaiji Temple and the Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall). It's the largest wooden structure in Japan according to Otoosan, and it has, you guessed it, the largest Buddha statue! It also has several other statues, including two of the  Four Heavenly Kings. I studied/wrote about them in a paper for Chinese Art History last semester, so this made me smile!

Then we wandered through another couple of shrines in the complex. There were deer everywhere! Most of them were huddled under trees, trying to stay out of the rain. At least until we got to the Great South Gate. Yes, almost everything there had a Great in front of it, to be fair though, most of it was pretty big. Outside of the gate, there were lots of little street stalls, most of them selling packets of special deer crackers that you could buy and feed to the deer. This is the area where all the warning signs about the deer start to make sense. I myself got headbutted in the rear end by one deer who was unsatisfied with my decision to not buy deer food! I saw a kid running with a line of deer following him until he dropped the cracker, which they immediately devoured.

As we left to park limits we saw a line of deer crossing the street, near a deer crossing sign no less. (There aren't any closed fences or gates around the pak, the deer are allowed to wander where they will, though they tend to stay near the park 'cause that's where the easy food is.) We stopped and watched them. As traffic got a little heavier, the deer on the other side, stopped, formed a line, and waited until the cars stopped, then crossed. I'M NOT KIDDING AND I HAVE PICTURES AS PROOF! It puts a WHOLE new meaning on the deer crossing signs!

There were a bunch of guys in uniforms, not police, more like security guards, standing in groups along the road as we walked to find a place for lunch.  We stopped and asked them what was going on. It turns out that a Japanese prince was going to be visiting the area, and there would be a sort of mini parade as he drove through. We did some window shopping to kill time, and then stood on the street side with the crowd and watched a bunch of cars pass, one of which had the windows rolled down, and a waving hand in it. That's all a saw of the guy, but Otoosan was really excited about it. Then we went to an udon restaurant, and all had curry udon. It came in giant, bigger-than-my-head bowls, and I couldn't finish mine! By the time we were done, Prince and company were coming back around, so we watched them pass again. Then we headed home.

A few hours later, Otoosan, Okaasan, and I packed up a change of clothes and drove to a nearby onsen, or public bath house. Otoosan went through one door, and Okaasan and I went through the other. We stripped, then took very long showers, and I tied my hair up to keep it out of the baths. There were several different sorts of bath areas. The ones inside all had jets and bubbles, and were very hot tub like, except imagine the hot tub sectioned off into four or five individual areas. Then we headed outside where there were long square hot and warm baths, all with room for multiple people to lay down and relax. There were also giant tubs of cooler water. They were big enough for me to sit in indian style, with water up to my chin! The large center bath was modeld after a natural hot spring, with fake rock providing excellent backrests! Okaasan and I also sampled the hot sauna for a few minutes, but neither of us liked it much. There was also a cold sauna! I was surprised by this, and Okaasan explained that going back and forth between the two saunas was very good for your complexion, but she didn't want to try it, and neither did I!

When we were done relaxing, we got dressed and joined Otoosan in the main room where we had dinner. And I had my first beer! I actually didn't like it very much. After dinner, we made our way home, where I read for a couple of hours on the couch, and then fell straight to sleep as soon as I hit my bed.