Japan: Beautiful Nara // 日本美丽的奈良

So begins my 3rd day in Japan! We had spent the past couple of days traveling to Osaka, but today the plan was to stay in Nara (the city where Yuna actually lived) and attend the Yamayaki Festival! I had no idea what to expect but I was excited to experience a Japanese festival that only few foreigners have the opportunity to see.

This morning for breakfast Yuna’s mom surprised me with natto, aka fermented soybean, which is a Japanese favorite and one of those “world’s weirdest foods”. It was SO sticky and weird! And it leaves your mouth feeling all sticky and slimy. I ate my fair share to be polite, but I don’t think I’d ever order it in a restaurant to try again… and actually Yuna hated it herself so I guess it’s just not for everyone!

When we arrived at Nara Park, I was immediately overwhelmed. There were HUNDREDS of deers just roaming around like you’d see squirrels or critters here in the US. But they were DEER and incredibly tame, just coming up to people (searching for food) and posing for pics. It was wild and I was just in awe of how unafraid of humans they were. I asked Yuna why the deers live here and why they are so tame, and Yuna said they’ve acclimated to people slowly over the years as the city became more developed. And actually, the deer live in the outskirts of the city but they come to the park during the day for food and scraps here and there. Over the years, they’ve transformed a normal park into a huge tourist attraction.

Again we got distracted by all the yummy treats on display! These icing-coated bananas were hilarious and for 300 yen ($2.5) I had to try one! Unfortunately we got a little too close to the deers and he took a big chunk out of it! Ewwww…

Below are some pancake sandwiches with custard filling inside. I didn’t get to try these but they sure did look good!

I thought it was a good idea, so I bought biscuits to feed the deer for 300 yen and as soon as the deer saw the biscuits in my hand, I was surrounded!!! I kind of immediately regretted it because I didn’t really prepare for how tall the deer were, especially when they were attempting to jump and eat the biscuits from my hands. I actually just ended up throwing the biscuits to them and then had to run away to escape the swarm… Yuna laughed at me for a good bit but hey I got bit once and didn’t want to experience that again! Anyways, I was left in peace after my biscuits were gone and just kind of avoided the deers after that LOL. Good little experience there.

After all that exciting fun, we headed inside to see the Todaiji Temple. The nature was very refreshing and the air was clean, crisp and cool. Here I got to see some of my first orange shrines! I learned about the shrines in my Global Studies classes and how they were related to Shintoism, but I never thought I’d get to see one in real life. They are the brightly colored orange “gates” which are not meant for worship, but rather represent a sanctuary and an area of safekeeping. In all of Japan, there are about 100 Shinto shrines. I want to see them alllllll.

Above are little charms made by the Buddhist monks that you can buy for yourself or loved ones. They are good for a year and for example, you can buy some that will “improve your love life”, “lead a long a healthy life”, “for safety during travels”, or even “passing all your exams”. However, you can’t open them, otherwise there power will be broken! Dun dun dun. Japanese are very superstitious. But I still bought some 🙂

We finally reached a clearing in the park and came to see this cleared portion of a hillside. Yuna explained to me that every year for the Yamayaki festival, fireworks are set off at the top of Mount Wakakusa (the name of the hill) and then the hillside is let a flame to clear the brush. The name of the festival is translated to “mountain roast” so yeah, I guess that’s pretty literal! We hung out until it got dark and more and more people filled the park. The whole empty field you see here ended up being filled with visitors who came to enjoy the festivities.

The fire started in the bottom corner, then before you knew it, the whole hillside was aflame. This festival was so different from anything I’d ever seen before and I felt so lucky to be able to enjoy it with Yuna and her family. Afterwards, we headed off for dinner at a kind of golden corral family style sushi restaurant (if you can imagine?). I had no idea restaurants like that existed but it was interesting to see how normal middle class Japanese families enjoy their night out with their kids. In all of these places I was pretty much one of the few foreigners, so I could tell I was really getting the ultimate authentic Japanese experience.