Nara: Founded 710 A.D.

Sunday morning I woke up around seven by myself and then I headed downstairs for breakfast with Okaasan and Otoosan. Afterwards, I started getting ready and then I left around nine in order to grab the next train to Hikone where I was going to meet my friends at the train station.

I met my friends and then we headed took the next express train to Kyoto. On our way, we met another girl who goes to JCMU who was also taking the same train, but she was going to Omihachiman instead. We all sat together and talked and when it came time for her to leave we invited her to come to Nara with us. (She had told us that she had gone to Omihachiman the day before with her frisbee group.)

So, she said yes and the four of us stayed on the train and headed to Kyoto.

Once we got to Kyoto station, we used the fare adjustment so that Katie (that is the girl's name) could get into Kyoto.

Train Note: When you ride the train, you look at a map where your city is in the center. Then, the train lines diverge form your particular city, and each city where you can stop at there is a number. That number is how much it costs to get from the city you are at to the city you want to go to. Once you buy your ticket, if you want to go farther, once you get to your destination you can go to a fare adjustment machine and pay the extra amount needed to get a new ticket. You put your original ticket into the machine so that it knows how much you have already paid, and based on what city you are in, how much more you have to pay.

In Kyoto we got a quick lunch and then headed down to the ATM machines to get some cash. Afterwards, we grabbed an express train to Nara.

Once in Nara, we had some trouble finding Jackie and Jackie's Japanese friend (best friend) Yuri. We went to Nara station, but Jackie was at Nara Station for the local Nara line. We walked around a little bit, before we found them, but the sights were pretty so I didn't mind to much.

It was just really really hot. Thank goodness I bought that fan in Kyoto the day before.

Once we met up with Jackie and Yuri, the six of us headed off to see the Great Daibutsu. Or the big Buddha. He has his own shrine and it's one of the highlights of the entire country of Japan.

We had to pay 500 yen (about $5) to get in. If one wished, one could burn incense before entering the temple. The temple's name is Todaji. I recommend looking it up and visiting if you ever go to Japan.

We say Buddha and lots of amazing statues that just towered above us. We also saw miniature models of other various famous landmarks, such as the five story pagoda. There was also a long line for people who wanted to try to fit into a hole the size of Buddha's nostril. There is a belief that if you can fit into Buddha's nostril then you will get to enlightenment in your next life or something...

I think it's supposed to be a little harder than that.

So, after Todaji, we walked to go see the five story pagoda. Now... once again, (I seem to be doing a lot of this lately) I'm going to go all nerd and connect a 1300 year old city with contemporary anime.

In the anime series, Naruto, there is a family called the Nara family. (Sound familiar??) The two males of the family, (that we know of anyway) names start with Shika. (Shikamaru, Shikaku)

In Japanese, Shika means deer. Nara is really really famous for their deer.

When walking on the cobblestone streets outside of Todaji, or near the busy roadways lined with souvenir shops, you can easily walk into a deer. The deer here are not skittish whatsoever, and will actually attack if you have food. (I saw that happen this weekend.) They walk on the same streets as if they were just like us. It's real cool, and for 300 yen, you can buy deer food and feed the deer.

Nara is also really clean-- the deer eat everything. And I mean everything.

After we saw the five story pagoda, we went to Moss Burger where we had dinner. Moss Burger is the Japanese version of A&W, they make the burgers for you when you order them. It was a really good burger, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Afterwards, even though it was only about six o'clock, the six of us were dead tired, so we headed back to the train station, where the four of us grabbed the train back to Kyoto and then from Kyoto to Hikone. I stayed on the train though, and took it one more stop to Maibara, where I switched trains and took one to Nagahama. I got home roughly around 9 pm.

And that was Sunday. I have plenty of pictures, but they aren't on my computer yet. It's hard to describe Nara because it's such a beautiful place that words and pictures don't do it justice. It's really something that people have to experience and I highly recommend it if you visit Japan.