I will say that i was particularly proud of my travels the past two days. I had to switch train lines several times yesterday and back today. and i was quite happy to have found my own way to Uji this afternoon. I know I am my mother`s daughter because of my almost affectionate attachment to my local map whereever I am. In argentina i was mercilessly made fun of for my attachment to the Guia T, a tiny but thick guide of about 200 pages, detailing the disaster that is Buenos Aires` bus system; I had been quite determined to master it and it was common to find it clutched, with a mixture of affection and disdain, in my right hand). Maybe in part, it is being alone, but i love knowing where i am and the way i can walk with confidence when i know how to get around. i must have been showing this confidence the other night as i strolled kyotos streets because someone actually asked ME for directions. I was so proud to tell her where she was and how to get to the nearest bus station!!!
back to Nara. By the time i had left my things at my guesthouse and moved on to the city i only had about 1.5 left of sunlight, maybe. I was hungry and in need of a little break so i picked a bench in the park. Now Nara is home to what i thought the guide book said about 200 dear, but maybe it was more like 2000. almost every female was either suckling a fawn or looked pregant). i have seen photos of people with these deer and they are unnaturally `friendly`. i had naivelly been looking forward to these odd, supposedly sacred creatures and petting one. after my first encounter with one, i took an instant disliking to them. the general tourist seems to love them, everywhere you look someone is posing with a deer. i will admit i found them occassionally endearing. one woman bowed to a deer that would bow back, another just kind of sauntered by me on a walking path and i half expected to exhange a `hello`.
BUT on the whole i did not like them. after eating i left a small bite and offered it to a stag near by. from here he leaned down and ate a cigarette butt! oh no! this made me very sad. then he sniffed by bag and ate a kleenex sticking out, no i said and pushed his nose. he came back stronger, going for the maps sticking out of my bag. MY MAPS!!! i was not having it. i moved. and two minutes later another one came sniffing my bag and straight for the maps! i moved. again and then left when another approaced me. i felt very concerned for these scavengers and really do not know what to compare them too, but they are not friendly, they do not care to be pet, they want to eat everything. they were pretty much like a goat at the petting zoo. plus the whole place smelt like a zoo. no thanks.
i decided to walk up to a temple i heard had a beautiful view of the city at dusk. this was honesly truly priceless. when i was approaching the temple. i saw a couple trying to take their own picture, so i took the oppurtunity to offer my services and took several of them. a few minutes later, on my advice, the three of us were admiring the city as the sunset. the husband was very chatty and i was happy for this because having done no talking since morning, i get quite chatty myself and this made me less self consicous. i think the whole experience that night at the temple would probably had been more memorable alone but the rest of the evening would have had nothing to remark about had i not met them. We (myself and the british couple) talked a long while until it was completely dark and then walked together back through the park and into the city for the next few hours. i was really grateful for the company and found them both very kind and enjoyable (plus he told me about the Monkey park in Kyoto, which even after the deer park, i am so so so excited about!!!) but it was so weird to kind of yearn to be alone again. it was so strange. this whole yearn i have yearned to be around others and now suddenly enjoying this solitary-ness for the first time in so long, or maybe ever, i really yearned for it.
I have done more thinking and reflecting than i have done in probably years. this last year especially, i never did allow myself much time to just think and allow the internal dialogue to run. i disliked so much living alone that i constantly distracted myself with music, with my cell phone, with my computer, or internet tv. I think yesterday was a day where I really just felt that I had settled comfortably into my solo adventure and that was quite nice. it was yesterday as well that it first occured to me how easily this trip could not have happened alone. it was my original intent to travel by myself, but this was a very loose idea. then it was going to be ashley and i`s trip. when she got her job, i was really sad and a little nervous to be alone. THEN my parents were coming with me, then amy, my cousin, was going to join me, then they were all unable to. And while i will say these are among the people i love most, i would not trade this last week for anything. i feel so attached to it that thinking of anyone else being on it makes me feel very very possessive. and well i just feel blessed that it turned out the way it did.
I can say I was not completely thrilled by Nara. It had been sold to me strongly, so maybe that was part of the problem. But this morning, also on the advice of my british friend, i paid to go in and see the giant Buddha in Nara (or as he pronounced Buh-duh: `we do love a giant Bud-uh, what could be better than a nice Buh-duh` he had said with a chuckle). this was quite amazing. it is housed in the largest wooden building in the world and it is among the largest Buh-duhs in the world. truly magnificent.
My energy was really low this morning. i also got hungry for lunch hours earlier than usual and was low on snacks. i had decided i would only spend half the day in Nara and on Jenny`s whole-hearted advice I decided to go to Uji on my way back to Kyoto. on my way, i bought a big lunch, downed two `expresso tea lattes`, popped some advil for my growing headache, and took a power nap on the train. i was in much better sprits by the time i arrived. Thank you thank you Jenny, i LOVED Uji and it was by far my favorite city outside of Kyoto among the three i visited. I whole-heartedly recommend it as well. And Jen i got you a postcard just as you asked! my real love of the city was the view from an beautiful orange bridge the crossed a fast flowing, wide river. the river was lined with gray stone banks where i found a group of art students making watercolors. from the otherside you could here a saxaphone player. it was lovely. the river flowed right from 4 pine covered mountains. it was a truly lovely sight and well worth the visit. before i left i watched the sun go down from the bank and thought about my lovely girlfriends from kenyon and thanked Jenny for the good advice.
More things in Uji that made me smile:
- Trying to go in the exit of the art museum (i have a talent for doing this on accident) and then getting privately ushered through a secret back way by several museum attendants because i seemed to clearly be too dumb and american to find the proper entrance. but it was really kind.
- a man selling ginger tea who stuck a toothpick covered in hunny in my mouth without warning
- discovering that these little sticks i see being sold everywhere are ear picks...
- seeing some incredibly beautiful watercolors in a small shop/exhibit
- japanese in flannel (they seem to love their flannel here, who knew?)
- disovering `expresso tea` which i think is just strong black tea with milk...
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