Also, the deer will kill you TO DEATH

So we went on a field trip to Nara today, which was awesome yet exhausting. We spent pretty much the entire day in this giant park (full of temples and deer, but more about that later), walking around and seeing different things.

We went to Koufukuji first, which was awesome if only for all the historical artifacts they had there. There were a bunch of Buddhist statues dating from the 8th century. EIGHTH CENTURY, GUYS. Anyway, there was a museum too, which was really crowded, so it was kind of hard to see anything, and it took forever to get anywhere because aside from having a million people trying to see all the statues and artifacts and the old ladies trying to read every single placard and stopping up the flow of people, you also had a bunch of people with prayer beads, standing in the middle of the museum aisle and praying and no one could walk past them because they were blocking the pathway. So, yeah, that was a little less than awesome, but oh well. There were some really cool statues, and I was amused that I actually knew who a lot of them were without reading the placards. (Yay, Popular Religion and Peasant Rebellion in China!) (Actually, I was also amused that I apparently knew more about most of the buddhas/bodhisattvas than the people praying to them. When we entered the main shrine there was (what I assume was) a family praying to Yakushi (the main buddha of the shrine), and the girl turned to the father and said, "Who is this again?")

After that, we went to Kasuga Taisha, which was a big shrine complex, so needless to say, I was swooning all over the place. I must admit that I tend to find Buddhist temples a lot less interesting than shrines (partially because you always have to pay to get in and you can't take pictures and all the statues' expressions are so bland, except for the guardians who are AWESOME and usually look like they're about to kill someone and have huge veins standing out on their foreheads), but since the temples tend to be a lot more impressive than the shrines, that's where we've mostly been going. BUT ANYWAY, we went to this shrine, and it was huge and there were all these stone lanterns along the pathway and we got to go into the back of the shrine and walk around back there and it was AWESOME. Pictures coming...sometime.

And then we went to Toudaiji, which is probably one of the most famous temples ever, and it was ridiculously crowded, because everyone and his brother was there for school trips it seemed like. So I thought that it being a temple and ridiculously crowded it would not be worth it (plus I had a headache, probably from dehydration, even though I had been drinking massive amounts of water all day). BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. It is probably my favorite temple I have ever been to. (Well, maybe. Kiyomizudera still holds a special place in my heart.) First of all, it is a friggin' old temple (first built in 728), and it is most famous for a giant Buddha statue. I had seen pictures of that statue before, BUT MY GOODNESS IT IS SO MUCH BIGGER IN PERSON. (It's 15 meters tall, okay? That's frickin' tall. Also, the temple is the largest wooden building in the world.) So I walked into the temple and it is entirely possible that my jaw hit the floor, and I probably stood there just staring at it for a while. AND IT JUST GOT BETTER FROM THERE. The statues were really expressive, and there was a ton to see, and even though it was crowded it was really easy to get from place to place. Also, there was a pillar with a hole in it which is supposed to be the same size as the Buddha's nostril, and if you can crawl through it you'll be enlightened. I didn't have time to do it (and given how small the hole was, I'm not sure my hips would have fit), but one of the other students did. Pictures coming...sometime (because this temple, unlike pretty much every other one I've ever been to, was perfectly okay with people taking pictures). Yeah.

Also, one of the guys in the program (blond haired, blue eyed, most obviously American guy there) kept being stopped by middle schoolers who needed to talk to a foreigner for their homework. AND THEY ONLY STOPPED HIM. It was very odd.

ALSO ALSO, what is with Americans and restaurants? Every time I run into an American in a restaurant in Japan, I wind up dying a little bit inside, because they are SO RUDE and complain about EVERYTHING and inevitably don't speak any Japanese at all and treat the waiters like they're stupid. UGH. Seriously, if I was going to go to all the trouble to travel to another country, I would at least read up on proper etiquette and basic phrases so I would know how to order food. I mean, it's not as though it's terribly difficult. You just say what you want and then "onegaishimasu." LESSON 3 OF JAPANESE 1, GUYS. Also, I don't care you if you think the waiters don't speak English, they can still differentiate a loud complaining voice from a regular one.

[/exasperation with rude Americans]

Also, THE DEER. Nara's known for its wild deer, which roam the park we were in and aren't scared of humans in the slightest. When we entered the park, there were big signs saying, "Warning! These deer are wild and may kick you, bite you, knock you over, or head butt you!" And everyone laughed at the sign.

Well, everyone but me. I've been around deer enough to know that you don't mess with them if you want to stay alive.

Anyway, first deer we see, everyone surrounds it and tries to pet it and starts squealing over how cute it is. And what does the deer do? It eats our residential director's map. Oh yeah. Bet you didn't see that coming. So there our residential director is, fighting with a deer, saying, "No, no, no, I NEED that! Don't eat that!" And of course everyone in the general vicinity is snickering quietly. Finally our residential director managed to get the map back (well, parts of it anyway), and we continued onward.

But had everyone learned their lesson? No, of course not. The next time we stopped (some people wanted to get shaved ice because it was freakishly hot), a deer came trotting up to our group, and once again everyone started squealing over how cute it was. And this deer was very friendly, and let everyone pet it, but then suddenly it caught sight of a toddler nearby, turned around, charged the toddler, and jumped on his leg. And my only thought was, "Oh gods, I am going to have to punch this deer, because it is about to maul this child to death." Fortunately, I was saved from having to get in a fist fight with a deer because after knocking the child over and probably scarring him for life, it got bored and wandered off, leaving the screaming child's frazzled mother to try to figure out how to explain to her son why the nice, cute deer had suddenly decided to beat him up.

Throughout the day, we kept coming across children who burst into tears every time a deer came near them. I WONDER WHY.

In any case, it is getting late and I am exhausted, and I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to do homework and go out with my host family, so, yeah. G'night!

(OHWAITOPAL. How can there be only one episode left????? I mean, SERIOUSLY? The light novel series's 8 volumes long right now, so obviously there's more story. I think I know what I'll be doing during all my free time next semester. IN ANY CASE, I don't think it'll be terribly hard to read, because on the train ride back from Osaka yesterday I tried to read it, and, without a dictionary, I could understand about 85% of it. So if you want to do some sort of translation thing, lemme know.)

(P.S. いーざーやーくーん。あーそーびーまーしょーうー。)

(P.P.S. If Izaya doesn't get his face pwned in some incredibly embarrassing way, I will have to go to Ikebukuro and PWN IT MYSELF.)

[/Durarara!! fangirling]