I got up incredibly early today, by which I mean half 8, determined to have a full and exciting day out. I got the train to Nara, I was there by 11, and headed straight to Nara park. Having braved the herds of tame deer which come and nibble any part of you which looks edible (in my case, my back pockets and knees) my first stop, via the enormous gate with its fearsome guardians, was the temple of Todai-ji (right), which is the largest wooden building in the world, and houses an enormous 600-year-old bronze Buddha. There's a hole in one of the poles
holding the place up, and if you can squeeze through it you're supposedly guaranteed enlightenment - however, there was a crowd of whooping schoolchildren round it when I was there, so I chickened out and didn't try it. So no enlightenment for me, I guess. Next stop was the hall up the hill, for
more views. There was a rest stop just next to it with free green tea, so I took full advantage and let myself be lulled into a little doze by the unrelenting buddhist chanting. I wandered through the park to the Kasuga shrine, along a road lined with hundreds of stone
lanterns, and then on to the five-storey pagoda at Kofuku-ji, the second tallest in Japan. While all this was very pleasant to look at, I realised after a while that I don't actually care that much about Japanese history - I was more interested in the architecture of the buildings, and the number of lanterns etc. This does not bode well for my week of intensive sight-seeing. All this gentle wandering eventually brought me back to the train station, so I headed back to Kita-Tatsumi and went to the Ramen place downstairs, which is, if the internet is to be believed, the only thing to to do in Kita-Tatsumi. I had one bowl, which was delicious, had some Gyoza dumplings, and then had to have another bowl immediately after. This left me absurdly stuffed, so it was lucky I only had to walk about 30 metres to get the lift back up to our flat. This evening I headed out to meet Bill and a few other people in a 280 bar, finding on my arrival about 15 Nova people all crammed into one tiny booth. I had a great night, talking to a chap called dave about his time in Seoul (he's been there two weeks), discussing the ultimate weekend of food with Kim who's going back to the UK in a week or two, apologising to a guy called Mike for chatting nonsense at him for hours the other night (although he did the same, so all's well), and arranging to meet up with Ray and Ash in Thailand if they get the 150000 yen in time. On the way out of the bar Bill tripped up and managed to cut the bridge of his nose on the pavement - a tiny cut, but he was very upset about starting a new teaching job looking like he'd been in a fight - and when we were crossing the street to get a cab, and I looked behind me to see Bill getting hit by one! It was a slow collision, only about 15mph, but a collision nonetheless - he rolled off the bonnet and got up laughing, seemingly unphased. The cabbie jumped out, ran to the front, totally ignored Bill and examined his cab for damage! It was an unlucky night for Bill.
I got up incredibly early today, by which I mean half 8, determined to have a full and exciting day out. I got the train to Nara, I was there by 11, and headed straight to Nara park. Having braved the herds of tame deer which come and nibble any part of you which looks edible (in my case, my back pockets and knees) my first stop, via the enormous gate with its fearsome guardians, was the temple of Todai-ji (right), which is the largest wooden building in the world, and houses an enormous 600-year-old bronze Buddha. There's a hole in one of the poles 
holding the place up, and if you can squeeze through it you're supposedly guaranteed enlightenment - however, there was a crowd of whooping schoolchildren round it when I was there, so I chickened out and didn't try it. So no enlightenment for me, I guess. Next stop was the hall up the hill, for more views. There was a rest stop just next to it with free green tea, so I took full advantage and let myself be lulled into a little doze by the unrelenting buddhist chanting. I wandered through the park to the Kasuga shrine, along a road lined with hundreds of stone 
lanterns, and then on to the five-storey pagoda at Kofuku-ji, the second tallest in Japan. While all this was very pleasant to look at, I realised after a while that I don't actually care that much about Japanese history - I was more interested in the architecture of the buildings, and the number of lanterns etc. This does not bode well for my week of intensive sight-seeing. All this gentle wandering eventually brought me back to the train station, so I headed back to Kita-Tatsumi and went to the Ramen place downstairs, which is, if the internet is to be believed, the only thing to to do in Kita-Tatsumi. I had one bowl, which was delicious, had some Gyoza dumplings, and then had to have another bowl immediately after. This left me absurdly stuffed, so it was lucky I only had to walk about 30 metres to get the lift back up to our flat. This evening I headed out to meet Bill and a few other people in a 280 bar, finding on my arrival about 15 Nova people all crammed into one tiny booth. I had a great night, talking to a chap called dave about his time in Seoul (he's been there two weeks), discussing the ultimate weekend of food with Kim who's going back to the UK in a week or two, apologising to a guy called Mike for chatting nonsense at him for hours the other night (although he did the same, so all's well), and arranging to meet up with Ray and Ash in Thailand if they get the 150000 yen in time. On the way out of the bar Bill tripped up and managed to cut the bridge of his nose on the pavement - a tiny cut, but he was very upset about starting a new teaching job looking like he'd been in a fight - and when we were crossing the street to get a cab, and I looked behind me to see Bill getting hit by one! It was a slow collision, only about 15mph, but a collision nonetheless - he rolled off the bonnet and got up laughing, seemingly unphased. The cabbie jumped out, ran to the front, totally ignored Bill and examined his cab for damage! It was an unlucky night for Bill.
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