Osaka, Japan

Morning

Slept like the dead, must have something to do with the fact that I'm in an actual home. It certainly feels good to be well-rested. Especially when your days are full of sight-seeing and your evenings are punctuated with binge drinking. Well, it's not really binge drinking, but I've got the tolerance of Mormon infant.

Listening to the rain beat against the roof and windows, I feel at peace today for the first time in a long time. Even back home I wake up anxious or uneasy about...I don't know what. Something I can't pin down, which makes it all the more disturbing. Whatever it is, it's not here and I'm thankful for that.

Mika had been charged with babysitting me today and would start off by picking me up for lunch, along with some of the other girls. I could get used to this. With time to kill, I checked my email and found that I had quite a number of them waiting for me. It's nice to know that I stack up so well against the Tuesday night line up on the major television networks.

After my morning clean up routine, I went downstairs to have some breakfast. Everyone had left the house already, so I had the entire place to myself. I walked into the kitchen and saw that Mrs. Uramaru had laid out a ton of food for me to eat. I couldn't believe how hospitable everyone has been to me. It was really over the top. Not being one for large breakfasts, I just made some coffee, flicked on some music from my cell phone (the one from home) and settled down to write in my journal.

All the features on my rental phone are locked down, which is a shame because I bet it kicks the shit out of my Canadian phone.

Like I was saying yesterday, the way this place is, the house, the city - it's now I imagined and wanted Japan to be. Tokyo is fun, fast-paced and insane, which is fine for movies and such, but it's not a healthy way to live. Though I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and some familiar sights back in the big city, I'm really in no rush to leave Hirakata.

This trip really has me thinking about career choices that will allow me more freedom to travel. And I don't mean a job that sends me all over the world (because I'm sure that gets old really quickly), rather I want to find something that would allow me to work a few months on and a few months off - that doesn't require I work on an oil rig or some sort of Alaskan king crab fishing vessel. Maybe when I get more experience under my belt, I'll be able to become a contractor. Anyway, I still have a while before I get to that stage, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Pomme de Terre

Mika showed up at around 11 and we went off to pick up Yumi and Ikuyo for lunch at an Italian place called Pomme de Terre, which I found to be an odd name. Would have thought it a French place, or at least, Irish.

While we were waiting for the meal, we discussed what we were going to do. On the list:

• Nara Park to check out the deer (messengers from the gods?)
• Todai-ji (the Great Eastern Temple) to see the Great Buddha statue
• Kyoto Tower to look down upon people
• an izakaya to get plastered, presumably

All sounded good to me, but really, I would have been happy just hanging out in a coffee shop all day, listening to everyone speak and not understanding a thing.

Ah, the food:

Nara

Before coming here, I'd heard about the deer at Nara park. They're protected, so they just roam around with a sense of entitlement like Indian cows. The girls told me that you could pet them and feed them, without them trying to spear you with their antlers or bite your fingers off, so it sounded like a lot of fun.

I was sitting in the back seat with Ikuyo and talked to her about coming to Canada for a year under a working holiday visa. I was all for it, but really, it's got to be tough for them. At least when I went to Japan, I had a job and a place to stay waiting for me. These girls (and guys) have to come over with the help of some shady agency that books the flight and arranges the documents for them - then, they're essentially on their own.

Of course, she can speak English fairly well and would have some locals to help her out (if she decided to come to Toronto anyway) - both of which go a long way when you're alone in a foreign country.

After a short drive, we arrived at Nara Park. We parked a fair bit away and walked through some narrow streets before finally arriving at the entrance. On the way, the girls noticed a name on one of the houses we passed. Apparently it's the name of someone famous, but it was just a coincidence that the names were the same.

Guess that's like "John Smith" over in these parts.

First up, the hall of gargantuan Buddha statues.

I was not disappointed. As advertised, there were a number of enormous Buddha statues and scores of school kids who seemed harder to corral than the deer outside.

Picked up a Hello Kitty souvenir for one of my (male) friends who collects them. I won't mention names, but I will say that made me really sad when I found out that this is how he spends his free time.

Doe, a deer

Get this: Japanese deer bow. They will walk up to you (may even gently nudge you to get your attention) and they will bow their heads in hopes of getting food. There were vendors selling what looked like giant corn puffs that you could feed to the deer. We bought some of these puffs, but as the girls soon found out, they deer aren't nearly as polite when they actually see the food.

The rain picked up a little and we were all out of puffs, so we decided to head off to Kyoto Tower. On the way out, we stopped in at another souvenir shop and I got Ted a Japanese war flag because I figured he'd get a kick out of it. (Of course, I probably wouldn't have bought this if I had the China/Korea legs of my trip ahead of me.)

Kyoto Tower

I love the fact that Osaka, Kyoto and Nara are all so close to each other. Just short drives between each city and tons of stuff to see and do in each.

Kyoto Tower is much like the CN Tower back home, much like the Fernsehturm in Berlin. A giant phallus, pointing skyward and everyone loves it. I left the Freudian analysis at the door upon entering the tower. It's only now that I realize that I don't have any photos of the tower itself from outside.

Down at the base of the tower, we had a short coffee break. As you can see from the smiles, everyone was grateful to sit down.

Evening antics

Back to the Uramaru household for another fantastic meal, but this time we were all treated to not only dinner, but a show.

And this was before the drinking started. This family kicks ass.

Here, the drinking starts

After dinner, we all went out to a local izikaya. Met another one of Tomo's friends, Yogo, who'd lived in L.A. for a stint. I was stuffed from dinner, so I munched sparingly on the food and sipped my glass of beer, while I watched everyone slip into various stages of drunkenness.

Normally-reserved Japanese people get to be a little, um, animated when you get some alcohol in them, as I found out when I checked my camera the next morning. These must have been taken when I excused myself to go to the washroom.