We left Kobe as the sun began to set and grabbed a local train for our next destination...Nara. While Ryan did all the planning for the trip, Nara is home to a very particular attraction that I wanted to experience and so when he asked me about things I wanted to do, I made sure to mention Nara. But more on that later. As per the normal routine, once we stepped foot in Nara, we made our way to the hotel to check in and unwind for a bit. Up until this point, our trip had run without a hitch, but we were about to hit our first speed bump.
We made our way into the hotel which we had to take an elevator right inside the door up to a certain floor. Once at the front desk, we gave the clerk our passports and waited for our room keys. While super friendly, both clerks barely spoke English. I note this because up until this point, all of the hotels we stayed in had at least one staff member whole spoke it well enough to communicate. So this was the first time experiencing the language barrier. After a few short minutes, the man at the desk gave us back our passports and showed the cost on the screen. Ryan gave him a confused look as he had already prepaid and pre-booked all our hotel rooms for the trip. He tried to explain this to the clerk. The clerk asked us to wait and disappeared in a back room. After a bit he returned and Ryan showed him the receipt via email. The clerk asked us to wait in the lobby and disappeared behind the curtain once more. We could hear him talking quickly on the phone. As we were waiting, I was wondering if this was going to be a long back-and-forth situation, but had no concern of not getting a room because the clerk had rung one up. Eventually he re-appeared and explained the best he could with his limited English that there was no booking in the record system. Not wanting to draw it out any longer, Ryan told him it was okay and we would pay for the room. Somewhere along the line, Booking.com fumbled the reservation, but thankfully we managed to get a room without too much trouble.
As we made our way back to the elevator, I noticed an entire rack of pillows in the lobby. It was odd to me that they were all stored near the entrance. When we reached our room, I looked at the bed and was caught a bit off-guard. The pillows on the bed were long, lanky, and filled with beans. It was weird and abnormal. I put my head on it, and while it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, I figured I could make it work. We took our daily breather before exploring the night side of Nara.
Ryan was very excited to show me this city, especially at night. From what I could see, it was as dense as the others in terms of large, man-made structures everywhere with little to no nature in sight. But the thing that made it stand out was that in a city of just over 360,000 people, at the early darkness of night, you could hear a pin drop. We walked the near empty streets as the buildings towered over us. We passed by an occasional human, moving car, or anything else that would contribute to the noise pollution for a city, and still could hear ourselves think. And to be clear, it wasn't a deathly silence, but rather a serene calm. Like if there was a city an old person would retire to, this was it.
If one were to say that Nara had a bit of magic, the serenity wasn't the limiting factor. As we continued to stroll the streets, we turned a corner and came upon an incredible site. Before us was a large square pond. Hanging high enough above it a running the whole way around its perimeter, were orange, paper lanterns, glowing in the night. The scene that lay before us was enough to stop our movement and observe its beauty. If I lived in that area, I would most certainly stop by that spot every night, as it could soothe the soul. Unfortunately, our moment of tranquility came to an end when some yahoo with an obnoxiously loud motorcycle came roaring on by. His engine was so loud, it could've woken the dead. Thankfully he disappeared almost as quickly as he came. We ourselves eventually left and headed back towards the hotel. Along the way, we saw a massive gashapon store and had to take a gander inside. There were flashy lights, high energy music, and rows and rows of gashapon machines. It was a sight to behold.
The next morning, we headed off to the part of Nara I wanted to see the most. Nara Park. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is a large, beautiful park that is filled with free-roaming and friendly deer. They are no one's pets, but they hold no fear of humans. Every single one will let you walk up to them and pet them even if you don't have food. I know we see deer all the time here in the US, but they're all timid and have no interest in humans (some for good reason). So to say I was excited to experience this phenomenon would be an understatement.
Upon arriving at the main gates, the deer were already abundant. Immediately I was in awe that I could walk right up to them and pet them. To be able to be in the presence of a touch wild animals with a soothing nature was therapeutic. Nearby the gates were little old ladies selling stacks of deer crackers for 200 yen ($1.26). Ryan and I each bought a stack and soon discovered something we were not expecting. Before we had those crackers in our hands, the deer did their own things and paid people no extra attention. But once they saw the old ladies hand them over, every single one within proximity swarmed us, forming circles around us so we had nowhere to go. We began to hand out the crackers to the deer, but soon found another surprise. The once docile deer turned slightly hostile. They all wanted the crackers and if you were feeding their friends, they weren't waiting for you to notice them. I heard Ryan let out a "hey" and "no!" I then let out a little yelp myself as I felt deer teeth make contact with my backside. It was a nip, but those nips don't feel too good. So I spun around and gave that deer a cracker...then was promptly bit in the butt again. I realized in the moment that I shouldn't have rewarded the deer who bit me, but my brain's reaction to get it to not do it again was to feed it. Which is ultimately the reason they do it because they know they won't get harmed and they'll be fed. I made it through my stack of crackers pretty quickly and came out with no broken skin nor red marks. And while being nipped by deer isn't something I would recommend, it was one of those rare travel experiences that I can now talk about for the rest of my days.
Nara Park is known for more than just the deer. It's grounds are home to multiple ancient temples, one of which houses the largest bronze buddha statue in the world. We had arrived at the park before the temples opened, so after we fed the deer, we wandered over to the first temple, found a vending machine (no surprise), grabbed a cool drink, and plopped ourselves down in the shade. At one point, I noticed a deer laying down against a building, so Ryan and I went over to it and parked ourselves next to it. We enjoyed our drinks, shared some chit-chat, and even spoke to the deer even though it wouldn't respond. It wasn't too long after that the temples opened, so we said good-bye to the deer and went exploring.
As we stopped at each one, the history and craftsmanship oozed out of them. Ryan is very avid about Japan's history and was consistently spewing out history facts about each place we stopped. Before this trip, the only other countries I had visited were English speaking countries with similar culture to the US. And after years of seeing other cultures only through books and the interwoven webs of the internet, I was now experiencing a culture with no English ties. The statues inside the temples were incredibly fascinating. In both size and craftsmanship. But it wasn't until we walked into the Todai-Ji temple that a full wave of awe washed over me. The bronze statue was so towering, my mind tried to wrap my head around how they moved that impressive chunk of stone and carved the very detailed human figure before me. To quote Ryan "It's their Mount Rushmore."
After we left the massive statue for all the other tourists to observe, we wandered the grounds a bit more and found an incredibly cool photo op spot. My feet were set on the paved path with a small wooden fence. Beyond that was a calm still pond, which was spread out before a grassy hill. Then on top of that hill was the Todai-Ji temple. It all embodied the beauty of Japan. We had one last thing to do before we departed the park and that was finally try some matcha tea. We followed the signs into a very modern and tourist tailored cafe. A waitress greeted us and brought us to a table. Two mugs of matcha were ordered and it wasn't long before they arrived. It was one of the greenest colored drinks I had ever had, but it was delicious. After we had downed the last drop, it was time to say good-bye to Nara and take another train ride to our next destination. Our stay was brief, but it was a magical one. I highly recommend a visit if you ever find yourself in that part of the world.
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