Day 52: Nara, Japan

I barely slept last night. The pillow was really big and super hard so I ended up just sleeping without it after tossing and turning for awhile. Then I woke up every 5 minutes when someone moved around or opened their door because I could hear everything so clearly from in my room. After a restless sleep, I was woken up at 7 am by the lovely smell of cigarette smoke and the sound of someone banging a door.

I opened my window and tried to go back to bed but the smell was too gross and strong. I played on my phone until 8 am until I couldn't stand the smell anymore and started to get ready. I thought I was getting an early start to the day but the city already seemed to be wide awake. The train station had a huge rush of people exit and the train was already a little full when I got on it. It was also the last train of its type that was running until 5:30 pm that evening (fortunate timing). There were other trains to my destination but they cost more so I was happy I made it to this one on time! This train was a private line that took 37 minutes and cost 560 yen ($6.50).

I did a better job of finding the correct train today but I still got a little confused. The train itself was cool and very comfortable except for the smell of smoke from the people on it. Everyone here seems to smoke and it gives me a headache.

My destination today is a city called Nara. Here is a list of the places I went to (in order): - Kofuku-ji Temple

- Nara Deer Park

- Todai-ji Temple

- Kasuga-Taisha

- Gango-ji

- Heijo Palace

I had purchased some clementines from a market last night and brought one with me this morning to snack on. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Nara Station I was already hungry again. I stopped by a bakery in the station and bought a croissant and custard thing (healthy breakfast choices clearly). Then I started my trek to Kofuku-ji Temple. My map said it would take about 20 minutes, but it took me much longer. There are signs at major intersections that show where all the shrines and temples in that area as well as how far away they are. I kept getting distracted and walking off course to check these out. Japan is super cool because I'll be walking and it will be just regular buildings and then there will be a random shrine right between two huge buildings. While I was wandering I noticed that there aren't as many cafes or tall buildings as there are in the areas of Korea that I have been to.

The streets here are so cool and the cars are super tiny. A lot of the streets are very narrow so I think people may drive smaller cars because they are easier to get around in. There were lots of shops with deer souvenirs and even some wall art of a deer because one of the main attractions in Nara is the deer park. I also passed a beautiful pond in the middle of what seemed like nowhere!

Finally I made it to my first destination: Kofuku-ji (興福寺) Temple. According to a site called Japan Guide, Kofuku-ji was the family temple of the Fujiwara (the most powerful aristocratic clan during the majority of the Nara and Heian Periods). It used to consist of over 150 buildings! One of the buildings in the temple is a five-storey pagoda that is the second tallest in Japan.

There were groups of students in uniforms either on a field trip or having lessons outside one of the buildings while I was there.

the little blue blobs are students

One of the buildings was a shrine and I saw a few people praying at it so I watched and decided to try it myself. I later googled how people are supposed to pray to shrines in Japan and I definitely did not do it correctly. The correct process is

1. bowing slightly

2. tossing a coin in the box near the shrine

3. ringing the bell 2 or 3 times

4. bowing deeply twice

5. clapping your twice, with your left hand slightly in front

6. paying respects to gods

7. bowing deeply once

I think I did the bow once and rang the bell, so I was way off. The shrine was really cool and there were lots of incense near it so it smelled nice.

After wandering around the temple (and face-timing my parents to show them all the cool buildings) I walked a short distance to Nara Deer Park. The deer park is a huge grassy area where deer can wander around freely. There are no gates so they can even cross the roads and wander around to other areas. I'm not sure how they don't wander further and cause problems at shops or along major streets. I was too scared to actually touch the deer but a few did wander close to me.

The deer park is part of a huge green space that also contains the Todai-ji and Kasuga-Taisha temples. I was trying to follow the directions on Google Maps to get to the temples when a super nice older Japanese man came up to me and gave me a map. He spoke a little English and even pointed out the places on the map that he recommended going to. He was so kind and it was super helpful to have him point me in the right direction, plus he said have a good day in English as he was leaving!

As I was walking to the Todai-ji temple a group of high school students approached me and asked where I was from. I told them I was from Canada and they got super excited and asked if I could sign my name on a map for a school project. I ended up getting asked to do this many more times by different groups of students of all ages. Every time I told them I was from Canada they all got super excited, which was adorable. The cutest group were students from middle school that gave me a little origami flower and wrote my name in Japanese for me after I signed their map and answered some other questions.

Every one here seems really nice and happy!

cute deer character at the gift shop

I walked inside the gate to the Todai-ji temple but didn't walk all the way in to see it since I had to pay extra and I could see fine from the gate area. I like wandering around more than actually going inside and seeing the places.

all the kids that were there with a teacher had to wear matching hats

I walked up a hill by the temple and found a couple buildings that were called halls on the map (Nigatsudo Hall and Sangatsudo Hall).

My next stop was the Kasuga Taisha shrine which required a little bit of a longer walk to get to (about 15 minutes). I passed a huge hill on the way where all the students seemed to be gathering. I walked by a few shops and there were deer just sitting outside of them which was super weird but cool.

As I was walking to a shrine, a group of young students said hello and started to talk with me. They were all adorable and kept saying really cute things. One of the boys even said he was in love with me which was adorable but also hilarious. It all made me smile.

When I arrived at the shrine I fell in love with the colours. All the shrines are painted this really vibrant orange colour that feels so happy! I wandered inside the shrine area but didn't go up to the part that people had to pay to enter. I thought I would be spending so much money on entrance fees for temples and shrines but there is actually a surprising amount that I was able to see without having to pay anything. A lot of the places only required people to pay if they wanted to actually enter the shrine to pay their respects.

the whole area outside the entrance was covered in these stone pillars

The next place on my list of things to do was hike Mount Wakakusa, which was very close to the deer park and temples. I wasn't really feeling like hiking today though so I decided to head back out to the street near the entrance of the deer park and get lunch. I found a cute little street that had several shops and restaurants. I picked one that had a fish burger because the menu said I could substitute the burger with rice. I ordered lemonade and the fish with rice and sat down to wait for my meal. When my food arrived I was a little surprised. I got pop and a fish burger with a huge lump of mayonnaise on it... and no rice. I didn't want to ask them to remake everything because that would be a waste of food so I just sucked it up and ate it.

After a not so amazing lunch I didn't really know where I wanted to go so I just started walking. It turned into such an amazing few hours of wandering.

I had to take an underground passageway to cross the street at one point.

I bought a water bottle from one of the cute light up vending machines.

I stumbled across a place called Gango-ji Temple that was surrounded by beautiful and colourful buildings.

I also passed a store with huge umbrellas outside and thought of you, Nana. I remember that you asked me to keep an eye out for mini umbrellas while I was away. I went closer to the place to see if they had mini umbrellas, but it ends up that it was a restaurant.

There was a lady with a monkey doing some kind of performance on a side street.

I continued walking and took so many pictures! I've gone from barely 1000 steps a day back in Canada to averaging 10+ km every day because I have come to love wandering around while listening to music. It is so amazing to be able to walk with no specific destination and not have to worry about any commitments or homework. I eventually made it to the outer part of the city and was overwhelmed by the smell of exhaust. There were a lot of cars, unlike the centre of the city, and it smelled very strongly! I started to get a major headache around 2:30 but I wasn't sure if it was from the lack of sleep or the pollution or a mix of both.

I think Japan is a beautiful place to visit but I don't think I would ever want to live here. The city looks a bit like the cities that are falling apart in dystopian movies. Kind of a depressing setting to live in.

Also, very random, but one of the sites that I looked at while I was researching what to do in Japan gave a forecast for leaf colours in different cities. They said late November and early December were the best times to see colours in the Kansai region. I am here in early November and almost all the leaves have fallen off the trees so I'm not really sure what they were talking about...

After walking for a bit I decided to figure out a destination. I had gone to all the places that I wanted to today so I checked the 'maybe' section of my list for today and realized I was about an hour walk from the Heijo Palace remains. I could have taken a bus but I was really enjoying looking around the city so I decided to walk.

I passed Nara City Hall.

The palace is huge. The first thing I saw was a gate surrounded by big empty space. Once I walked through the gate there was this huge field and a sign showing areas where there used to be buildings. There was also a small area of my favourite fluffy grass.

At this point I had been walking for several hours so I stopped by the railroad that passed through the remains and sat down for a little bit. My legs were so tired that they were feeling a little shaky.

Once I could motivate myself to move again I walked about 10 more minutes to get to the main area of the remains. They are currently trying to rebuild as much of the palace as they can so there was an area under construction when I arrived.

Only one of the buildings had been completely rebuilt so far. It was open to the public for free so I decided to check out what was inside. They had turned it into a kind of museum with information about the original palace and a history of the project to re-create it. It was really interesting to read about how they had rebuilt it from the remains and all the people involved in the project! There were many things that they talked about that I wouldn't have even considered when looking at the building. There was a lot of research put into perfectly recreating everything: from the flower pattern on the pattern to the marks on the pillars inside the temple. There were also lots of pictures of the crew working on the new building.

One side of the temple faces onto a road. It's a little strange to have this old temple and then cars driving right beside it.

When I finished looking around the building it was just after 4. It starts to get dark here really early and by 4 the sun was already setting. My legs were exhausted so I figured it was a good time to start heading back home. One of my biggest concerns about coming to Japan was how much more expensive everything seemed to be compared to Korea, particularly transportation! The transportation here is significantly more expensive than Korea, probably because I have to take a train to get to different cities rather than just a subway or bus around the city. In Korea I was spending 1250 - 2500 won a day ($2-3) on transportation and that was only on the days I went somewhere too far to walk to. A train between cities in the Kansai region can range anywhere from 500 - 1100 yen ($6-$13, although the trains are typically 900-1100 yen) and that's only one way.

I ended up realizing that I can walk an extra couple of minutes rather than bussing (and find cool places along the way) and if I change what station I arrive at I can save a lot of money. Today it was going to cost 880 yen to bus to a station and take a train back to the station closest to where I was staying. I walked to the station (less than 20 minutes) and changed my destination to Namba station so I didn't have to transfer trains and pay extra, plus I would then arrive near Dotonbori street so I could find yummy food for dinner. The trip cost me 490 yen, almost half the original price! Go me haha... It made me feel really proud of myself to be learning the transportation so quickly and adapting.

I got on the train and made it to Dotonbori. I was ready to wander around and find a yummy found place but ended up drawn back to the ramen place I went to last night. This time I ordered their gluten free noodles so I would hopefully feel a little less like a bloated whale afterwards. I've noticed that Korea is a very social country when it comes to meals (in Seoul at least). It is very uncommon to see people eating alone at a restaurant and some restaurants will even refuse to serve someone if there is only one person. However, I have passed so many restaurants here that have tables specifically designed to work for people who are eating alone. This difference makes me feel much more comfortable eating by myself.

On the walk back to my hostel I heard the Japanese version of BTS' song DNA being played at a restaurant. I also heard their song Fake Love and it was so fun to be walking in a different country and hearing it (Canada get your crap together please). I passed through a market area on the way back and everything was all lit up! One of my favourite things about Japan are all the lights at night.

I also walked past the unicorn cafe, but it wasn't open tonight.

At around 10 pm I got a face-time from my dad. He wanted to show me the piles of snow in our backyard back in Canada. I laughed at this and told him I had my sleeves rolled up today because it was so sunny and warm (haha sorry dad). I am incredibly thankful to be in a warmer country, especially with winter time approaching.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(November 16, 2018)

Distance walked: 23.3 km (32,000 steps)