Day 4 – Kofukuji, Kasuga Taisha, Kodaiji, Byodoin, Fushimi Inari Jinja
On Tuesday Eri and I went alone again since all her friends were either too shy or too busy to come with us. She had things fairly well planned for this day so we hopped on a train to Nara which took about 45 minutes I think. Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (a long time ago) and is now known for lots of famous temples. We played a little Mario Kart DS on the way and it was cool to see the Japanese and English versions play together without a hitch. I’d look over to see what hers said on menus and such to see how things were translated. Luckily I’ve seen enough anime to have decent smack talk in Japanese, but I didn’t wanna use too much against Eri.
Anyway, when we first got to Nara I was surprised to see that it’s a real city. I’d seen maps with just temples all over and I thought it was just for tourists. One of my most non-Japanese experiences happened when we left the station. Eri said “excuse me” (in Japanese) to three people in a row and they all completely ignored her. One lady ignored me once later when I was by myself but I figured that’s because she assumed I didn’t speak Japanese. It was amazing to see one Japanese person being rude, let alone three in a row. It is pretty rare though; Eri was also surprised but she said, “See, Japanese people can be rude too.”
Later we did get someone to give us directions and the first place we went was Kofukuji. It was a really nice temple with pretty buildings but I can’t think of anything in particular to say about it. After that we headed to Kasuga Taisha and saw lots of deer on the way. Nara deer are famous in Japan for being super-friendly. They just roam the city trying to get food from people and they can be very aggressive. I think I wasn’t as amused as most people because I’m so used to playing with “wild” animals. They’d come up and try to eat my pants when I wasn’t looking; I actually heard a story of a guy who got his passport eaten by one, but that was on Miyajima (a later post). They were cute but they were also pretty gross because they were really oily/greesy. The antlers were even worse. One was poking Eri so I grabbed his antlers and moved him and my hand was covered in a thick goo.
Eventually we found the path to Kasuga Taisha which was a long path up the mountain. Eri got some deer food (stale cookie things) and this cute little guy (who was not so gooey) followed us most of the way up. This was actually when I decided maybe I didn’t absolutely have to go to Okunoin, because this was very similar to to what I was planning to go there to see. I really love the mountain roads lined with stone lanterns and ropes with the folded paper hanging down. By this point I was very used to being in Japan, but there was still a constant surreality to everything. I’ve never been super-obsessed with Japan at any one time but I’ve been very interested in it as long as I can remember so finally being in a place like this was… subtly overwhelming. Sometime I need to write about the two Japans (traditional and modern) and how I feel about both, but now I need to keep with the story. Kasuga Taisha was another big complex, and there was a family inside taking pictures with newlyweds. It was more of the low lying style of shrine and had a really long path in orange pillars with golden lanterns hanging in it. Another shrine that was really nice but I don’t have anything to distinguish it from all the other really nice shrines.
After Kasuga Taisha, we headed to Todaiji, which is the biggest wooden building in the world but is still only 2/3 of its original size (burned down of course). Even just the gates way out in front are pretty big, and those are guarded viciously by ancient gods in sexually ambiguous poses. I started to see a lot of these types of guards in the older temples I went to. Sometimes its Raijin and Fujin guarding places like this and sometimes its another pair Eri told me about that have something to do with eternity that was hard for her to explain to me with my Japanese level. Everything about this place was huge, but it’s hard to get much scale from any of my pictures from Todaiji, outside or in. Later when flipping through my own pictures, I wondered why I’d taken a picture of this random Buddha statue. Then I realized it was Todaiji’s Daibutsu, the largest Buddha in Japan, you just couldn’t tell at all from the picture. Daibutsu’s back was really impressive too, but my picture is pretty dark so you can’t tell. This is the kind of place people have to see for themselves. One of the pillars inside has a hole in it the size of Buddha’s nostril that people see if they can fit through.
There were a lot more shrines and temples in Nara, but Eri and I wanted to stop by Uji on the way home so we just went to those three and then we started heading back. Uji is a small town between Kyoto and Nara with a few famous places. It wasn’t on purpose but first we saw the Uji bridge which is really pretty and moderately famous. Then we went to Byodoin which is the shrine on the back of the 5yen coin. On the way in we saw these really cool big rocks with Japanese carved on them, and we also passed a lot of places selling Uji’s famous green tea. Eri and I tried and sample and it was possibly the tastiest drink I’ve ever had. It has a strong flavor and is pretty sweet. I would have gotten some but I really couldn’t afford the space in my backpack so I just memorized what it tasted like and figured now I could have one of my own snobby tastes to go up against people who only appreciate the finest coffee beans Guatemala has to offer. When Eri came to Tokyo she brought me some Uji tea but I still haven’t managed to open it; it’s just too precious and I can’t bring myself to drink it. Anyway, Byodoin itself is very pretty set in the water, and there’s also a nice museum nearby that comes with admission to the shrine. After that we headed back to the station and went back to Kyoto.
I thought this was the end of the day but actually the best part was later. Everything closed so early in Nara and Uji that there was still some light when we got to Kyoto Eri suggested we get off at a station near the edge of the city and see the Inari Shrine. The Inari Shrine is one of the few I knew by name before going to Japan so I was very happy to go see it. It’s actually not a shrine like you’d think but lots of orange torii (gates) going up a mountain with buildings here and there. After the first one or two hundred gates, Eri and I were amazed at how many there were and wondering how far it was too the top. Sometimes the gates would stop for a turn around the mountain and we would think they were over. We were still amazed when we got to one thousand or so, but then we realized they were not going to stop. There are actually many many thousand gates going up the mountain. Some are really big, some are fairly small; almost all have someone’s name carved into them. When we’d walked for a very long time and it was starting to get a little dark we came to a little cluster of houses and we asked an old lady how far to the top. She said we were about halfway, but there wasn’t really a good view at the top and the best overlook would be about 20 minutes farther up. We figured we just did have time to make that before it got dark so we kept going. One a side note, this is when I discovered Gogo no Koucha (a type of tea), but not the tan one yet; this was the red one which was also very good.
We finally made it up to the overlook and saw a really nice view of Kyoto, but it would have been nice if it wasn’t so hazy. One funny thing was that I kept hearing voices and I thought it was kids way down the mountain playing a game or something. It sounded just like far away children hooping when playing a sport. I said something about it to Eri and felt pretty stupid when she said they were crows. We just stood there for a long time trying to take everything in, but then Eri pulled me away because it was going to get dark. We headed back down the mountain and started looking for a place to eat.
One thing that’s amazing about Japan is how many small restaurants and shops it has. There are lots of places where the doors stay closed and they’re not really expecting anyone so you let yourself in and then call out and someone runs out from the back to serve you. We went to one of these places we stumbled across. We were in there for a few hours and no one else came in the whole time. I imagine they probably get a few customers a week. Anyway, it was a cute little place with a huge menu. Eri and I talked through what a lot of the things were and what might be good; then she just ordered us a lot of stuff. We got soups and plates of vegetables and some bataa koonu (buttered corn, exactly like Mom would make). Maybe I’m just more dumb American than I thought, but I was amazed how many vegetables the Japanese have that I’ve never even heard of. Eri would look them up in her dictionary to tell me what they were and usually they had some English translation that I’ve also never heard. Everything was quite tasty and I thought we were done when the waitress brought out one more dish which is what I think everyone first pictured when I said I was going to Japan. When the lady put the fish heads down I told Eri, I wasn’t too comfortable with it staring at me and it’s buck teeth sticking out. I just watched Eri though and tried to copy what she was eating. The cheek actually has a small pinch of meat in it that wasn’t bad (until I got stabbed by the tiny bones that came with it). But then after that, the only meat left was a thin later covering the bones (all with tiny splintering bones in it). I did the best I could eating a lot of it (I did not eat the eyeball), and I thought I’d done a pretty good job and put my chopsticks down but then I was amazed Eri kept working on it for a good 20 minutes. she found more meat than I’d ever imagine was in there, but it still probably added up to maybe 1 small bite of chicken. So that ended up being my one crazy food experience that everyone expected to happen to me everyday, and it wasn’t even that bad.
After we left the restaurant Eri sent me back to Kyoto station by myself since we were closer to where she lives. It was a little weird being in a completely abandoned tiny train station in Japan at night, but later I got very used to that feeling. When I came out of Kyoto station to head home I had one of my first times when I started to comprehend what I was doing. These times came sporadically throughout my trip triggered by random things. This time it was just a small band playing guitars and singing outside the station. I stood with a group of Japanese schoolgirl groupies and listened for a few songs. Something about the situation just helped me comprehend how great things were and I stood there listening and smiling for a bit before I headed back to the hostel for my last night. When I got back I did laundry to get ready for my long trip by myself and went to sleep. The next day would be the first of my days wondering in the morning if I’d have a place to sleep that night.
