Nara Tours Before The Kids Are Unleashed and The Nighthawk Is Back Online

I know I have said this before but I really cannot stress enough how much simple tasks in my previous life are so problematic for me in my current one. I know I really should hunker down and brave the robotic underwater teachers again to learn more of the Japanese language then, oh, two sentences but with all this teaching, touring about and then returning to upload photos, edit them and write about it touring about there is really little time for such linguistics. Two days ago I was delivered another communication problem. When I returned home on Wednesday night I found waiting for me something I have been checking my mailbox daily for since the beginning of the month. What I found was the eventual problem in the form of a note from Yahoo! telling me I had a modem to pick up. Finally I was getting back online. I have started to get the shakes without the Internet and, even more terrifying, I was maybe just starting to get used to life without it. Yikes!

Yesterday morning I took my note over to the post office for what I thought would be a quick stroll in and a quick stroll out out with my modem firm planted under my arm. I whistled a little tune (okay I didn’t) and thought of a being able to once again get back to frequent blog posts, emails and the downloading of entertainment (most importantly pornography). Nothing doing. The man at the postal desk, we’ll call him Yuki, told me… well, actually, he performed a verity of gestures when he realized I didn’t understand a lick of what he was saying to tell me I didn’t pick up this parcel here and that I should call the number on the note. Easy for him to say, Yuki, you speak the language! Feeling slightly disgruntled I tried to call from a payphone at the train station but a Japanese recording came on that I didn’t understand. Maybe I didn’t put enough money in but how much I should add was unclear from the recording. The operator to me here is about a useless as a man is to Rosie O’Donnell. I hung up the phone frustrated by my lack of comprehension and headed on into work to use the phone there where I was met with yet another recording, this time from the delivery company, that may have said their business hours or how to set up a delivery or maybe it said the raccoon has taken my pineapple but I had no idea so click down went another phone with me no closer to my pornographic downloads.

I was running out of ideas on how to findd out when and where to pick up this modem. I thought maybe I would call good ol’ Jimmie. Jimmie is an independent American working here in Japan signing up all us foreign folk to the internet and the guy has been a great help even giving me his personal number should I run into any hitches. I called once. I think Jimmie was in the shower but nevertheless he sloshed his way to the phone to give me a hand. Well, this was a hitch but Jimmie was not answering the phone. The next option was my new friend Luke. Luke, you may recall, was part of my training group. He’s an Australian who has lived here with his Japanese wife for a few years and he speaks fluent Japanese. Blast it, Luke was not answering either! I thought about calling my branch office because everybody spoke Japanese there but figured that would be stretching the employee/management relationship a little too far and just when I was about to start stopping people on the street an idea struck me. I was really hungry for Oreo cookies! Okay, then another idea struck me.

A few blocks away from my classroom was the Nara Tourist Office. I know translating internet modem delivery slips was not part of their job criteria but maybe they wouldn’t mind. I quickly raced out the door and down the street, slip in hand, until I made it all out of breath and wheezing to the English speaking clerks desk to explain my situation. The tourist center in Nara is a really neat place as it is a mini museum of Nara’rific stuff. What makes it extra super cool is that they always have a staff member on who speaks English! I have been into the place a few times and have always been met with a friendly “hello”. You can get English maps from this place and the really amazing thing is you can call yourself up a free English tour guide who will walk you around Nara. Today I was met by a new woman, we’ll call her Sakura, with salt and pepper hair and rose smelling perfume. Sakura was very courteous and she told me the note was saying that I missed the delivery and to call to set up a pick up time from. I explained to her I did not know Japanese and she offered to make the call. A time was set up for later that evening and I thanked the her for hooking me up with my wonder drug and later that evening my doorbell rang and a guy in a blue suit handed me over the modem I so desired. Ladies and gentleman I am back in black. Well, if you want to get technical about it I am back in gray and beige but back all the same. Oh internet, I missed you so. How did I ever live without your wealth of knowledge, tools of communication and pornography? Let’s never part again.

Okay, moving right along. The best part about having a classroom in beautiful Nara is the ability to explore around before the little kiddies are shoved through the door for the day of punching, shouting and maybe a little learning. I foresee many park lunches with the deer, temple hopping and shop browsing in my twelve weeks I get to spend in Nara over the course of my year here. Today was the best batch of weather all week but it was still not the greatest with it being very overcast and slightly chilly. Still, I decided to board an early train to Nara but first something to eat. The Yagi station has a small restaurant inside that always is displaying something tasty in the glass casing by the doorway. I think I have mentioned it before but a shitload of restaurants and cafes will display plastic versions of their wares in glass cases by the entrance. This is the second best thing to those vending machine places because, again, you get to see what’s in store and you can cart the clerk outside and point to your meal if you can’t read the menu. I have frequented this place before traveling into Nara a few times this week to satiate my hunger prior to the long walks. I think the two who run the place are husband and wife. Every so often they comically bicker over the rapidity of service. The husband, a very thin man with wrinkles over his wrinkles and a stained white outfit, is the cook and his wife, a plump raven haired woman who is always in blue, tends the counter taking orders and serving the grub. Large kettles and fryers are in front of the counter where you sit so you can watch portions of your meal being cooked. Tofu and pork pieces fry and pop in the greasy vat and a small fridge keeps the beers cold. It’s a great little place. The counter is always filled with Japanese noodle slurpers (slurping noodles here is actually a good thing and a sign of enjoyment of your meal) and I sit myself down as the odd man in the crowd and say “set-o” which is ordering whatever they currently have displayed outside. The duo have become used to me, I think, because the woman recognizes me now and smiles when I come in saying something I don’t understand but I believe it is “welcome back”.



With a stomach full of tofu, pork cutlet, rice, miso soup and salad I was ready to walk around for the next few hours. My main destination today was the Kasuga Taisha Shrine at the Southern most point of the city (at least on my map it was). Just before this, one of Nara’s bigger attractions, there is that shrine I mentioned the other day that is often overlooked for the bigger draws. The city doesn’t even plug the name of this place on it’s walking tour maps but a bit of digging told me it was the Himuro Shrine. When Nara became the capital of Japan back in 710 an icehouse was dedicated to the icehouse God Himuro Myojin. Really, no shit, they have icehouse Gods here. In fact, my trusty translation guide tells me that himuro is Japanese for icehouse. How convenient! The original site was at the foot of Mount Mikasa by the Yoshiki river but it was moved in 1217 to where it sits now watching tourist walk by to Todaiji Temple. Every April and September ice from the icehouse was given to the imperial court and there was a festival in honor of this ice offering first held in 711. The icehouses in today’s 7-11s will bring tasty tidings of Ben and Jerrys, Fudgesicles and Drumsticks. The ice fest has recently been revived and is now held the first of May when very little ice is around. Interesting. This shrine’s draw to the locals is the cherry blossoms that bloom in late March and early April.

Of course every shrine I have been to has a cat and this one was a friendly little guy I sat with for a few minutes as it rolled around gleefully.


A tea set was resting on the floor near one of the side entranceways. It made for an interesting photograph.


Of course every shrine I have been to has a cat and this one was a friendly little guy I sat with for a few minutes as it rolled around gleefully.


Okay, enough of the ice house. Let’s head on to the main event: The Grand Kasuga Shrine. The walk to the shrine takes you through Kasugayama Primeval Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (yes, Nara has many). This forest contains 175 kinds of trees. Here you stroll amongst the oaks, cedar and wild cherry trees as the sun slices through the leaves over head to light your way. Hundreds of various types of plant life can be found here as well and many animals call the forest home. Boars, raccoons and of course deer can be spotted in the forest and for bird watching enthusiasts look out for the 60 bird types that reside in the branches high above. Man, I sound like a travel brochure. Nara should fucking pay me for this!

The trees here are very old and some signs list trees dating back a couple thousand years. It really is a serene place to walk if you can get around the deer stalking you for whatever food you might have on you. Seriously, these things will just jump out in front of you from seemingly thin air to give you a massive coronary and then eat the Snickers bar out of your cold, dead hand. You’ve been warned, fellow travelers.


A poem rock marks the start of your journey to the Grand Kasuga Shrine.





The path to the Kasuga Shrine is lined over a thousand stone lanterns. This approach must look stunning when all the lamps are lit every January and August for the lantern festivals. Some have stone deer carved into the lantern’s base and the moss growing all over the stone makes for an ancient worn look. Many signs on the path ask to not touch the lanterns and you can see some of these go unheeded as a few of the lanterns on the path are broken.


There are a few steps to climb on your way up the path that makes the hike a bit easier although I preferred the pathway of lanterns over the stone steps of lanterns.


Near the shrine is a water fountain of a deer where worshipers will cleanse their hands before prayer. I wonder if they realize that water they use becomes a deer bath when there is nobody around?




You pass under one of those large wooden gates to get to the shrine and the closer you get to the site itself the more little carts selling food and deer crackers you find and the more carts selling deer crackers means more deer. They poke around the lanterns awaiting treats, ready to spring on the first sign of a cracker. Oh yeah, where there is deer hungrily snacking there is also deer shit so watch your step.






The Grande Kasuga Shrine, or Kasuga Taisha, is a gorgeous red structure. A on the shrine wall best explains the significance of this site. It reads: The Kasuga Shrine was founded in 768 A.D. at a time when Nara was the capital of Japan. The beautiful location, in the vicinity of Mikasa-Hill and Kasuga-Hill, was upon a site which had been considered holy from the earliest time. As the family shrine of the powerful Fujiwara family the Kasuga Shrine rose to the zenith of importance in the Heian period (794-1185), when the Fujiwara aristocracy was dominant at the Imperial count upon its move to the new capital at Kyoto. Even after the period of Fujiwara political pre-eminence came to an end, the family still retained a position of great prestige at court, as virtually all Empresses have been members of the Fujiwara branch houses, their tutelary shrine, the Kasuga Shrine has developed many close ties with the Imperial-Family. The shrine is unsurpassed as a repository of Heian period art and architecture, periodic restoration and ceremonial rebuilding have assured careful preservation of the original forms of many ninth, tenth and eleventh century buildings. Of the four deities enshrined here, Kemikazuchi-no-mikoto and Futsunushi-no-koto were originally brought here from the Hitachi and Shimofusa districts in modern Ibaragi and Chiba prefectures near present-day Tokyo. The remaining two, Amenokoyane-no-Mikoto and the female deity Himegami, are revered as forebears of the Fujiwara family.

The shrine was was rebuilt every 20 years in accordance to Shinto tradition until the 19th century. The architectural style of the shrine is called Kasuga style mainly because of the shape of the roof.






Kasuga Taisha is a gorgeous red structure known mainly for the lanterns that not only lead you to the shrine but also are inside the shrine grounds. Lanterns of many varieties are all around the site. The bronze lanterns are the more popular of the bunch and they glimmer in the sunlight looking very golden.


As I made my way up the shrine a group of businessmen followed making my photographing around them quite the task. They were there for a business ceremony. I mentioned these early on in February from when I visited the shrine in Nagoya but these ceremonies are held usually by brand new companies and corporations or companies venturing into new business transactions. Company groups visit the shrines to ask for harmonious and prosperous business. Sounds like they are asking the Gods for cash if you ask me but what do I know?






The ceremony is very exquisite with two monks kneeling down on mats as a young girl dressed in a beautiful kimono dances. The monks provide the music for the graceful motion of the girl with one playing the flute and the other chanting. It is all very melodic and elegant. I am unsure the entire purpose of the dancing girl, chanting and flute playing but if it brings forth the wealth I say bring on the dancing girl! You’d think that by me just being in the presence of this ceremony would bring me a little wealth but I didn’t even fine a damn penny on my walk back to the station. I guess you have to be in a business suit.

Soon a crowd had gathered to watch the ceremony and I decided to try the camera’s video mode once again and film the proceedings.








There is much to do around the shrine with a small museum on site showing various period panoply. A stone building behind the shrine had a nice tree in small bloom and there were places around the site to purchase small bore and heart prayer markers. I don’t understand the heart markers and it is the first place I have seen them but this is the Year of the Pig in Japan and I have seen boar and pig markers at most of the shrines I have visited. Again, lots of stuff to see around the main shrine and there were drums, flags and even a cart that once pulled the Emperor on display.





Heading away from the shrine you cross a small red bridge and find yourself at the site of a few mini-shrines and a pretty tree that was in full bloom of red flowers. A few had either been picked or fallen to the stone and wood steps below and the red on grey and brown made for pleasing contrast.







I had another hour and a half to kill before I needed to check in at the classroom so I thought I take in another one of Nara’s main tourist draws: Kofukuji Temple. As you walk on to the site you notice one of the main symbols of the city. Okay, yes, there are deer but this time it is not the deer. On the temple site you find two pagodas with the five story one making all of the postcards as it is the second tallest in all of Japan (the one in Kyoto is larger by a few centimeters). The pagodas date back to 1143 and 1426 the five story tower can be seen from all around the city poking over the trees. It is truly a site to look up at.





Kofukuji itself actually was not built in Nara originally but was transferred from Kyoto in 710. I guess the fine folk of Kyoto thought they had enough temples and were generous enough to donate one to another city. It was first moved to Asuka and then to Nara. Once again, that Fujiwara family has their name all over this place as it was their main temple. This one was founded by Kamatair Fujiwara’s wife. Much like a lot of spots in Nara this is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Inside is a gold Buddha statue but most of the attention is devoted to the pagoda outside. Origially the site had 175 buildings but fire and war left only a few standing. You can see where other buildings were by the outline of their foundations on the site.




Although not as much as the Kasuga Shrine, you can find some neat stuff around this temple. Some of the building details are noteworthy and there is a tea house on the grounds where you can dip your head in for a cup. There I go writing travel brochures again!


Behind the temple you find the much neglected three storied pagoda sitting at the end of a small park. Poor little guy. I bet you he’s much more talented then his big brother. He just never gets a chance to shine.




At the entrance to this pagoda park are a dozen or so small statues with my favorite being the Buddha resting in meditation underneath one of the park’s trees. Very peaceful.


This temple is closest to the train station and can be reached by climbing another steep set of steps from the street. At the base of the steps is a souvenir shop and I tip my hat to the owner for setting up camp at such an ingenious local.


Across the street from the shop is a small park with a nice pond that people sat around with their lunchboxes (No, not the kind you are thinking of. A lunchbox here is bought from street vendors, restaurants, in grocery stores or convenience stores and is basically a Japanese TV diner with usually an array of fish, pork, vegetables and race encased by a plastic package to cart around. They are cheap meals and popular around the noon hour).


There was even a turtle making the rock in the pond home. I thought it was a statue but closer observation proved me wrong. I wonder if it was teenage, mutant or ninja?



My final photo op of the day took place later that night after I’d locked up the class and was heading on home. I passed a large crowd of young people on the street waiting for entrance into what looked like quite the hot spot. I looked up to find Club I Love you with a sign asking me if I were free that evening. Wow, it is a comfort to know that whenever I am feeling unwanted there is always a spot in Nara that loves. Goodnight all!