Sunday, October 31, 2010

butt-biting deer, a huge buddha and a moss covered, myterious forest

saturday was the first day since i'm here where i did some touristy stuff. and i loved it! me and some guys i got to know last saturday went to nara (a little city 40 min by train away from osaka). it's a city full of temples and shrines, but also deer. they're everywhere, on the streets and in the forests, most of them just standing in the way, looking cute and waiting for food. but some are really agressive, there are warning signs all around saying that you should be careful cause the deer might try to eat your handbag or your butt or might chase you around. we saw one that liked paper bags a lot. they also made a really strange sound, a bit like a whining dog, only more disturbing. and one had a blind eye, which seemed to be staring at us. now i know what my next nightmare will be about.




we first visited some temples. they were all so big! in this one here there is a huge buddha statue - i mean HUGE - looking down on the tiny mortals.




a really angry guy


another temple area:





we then went to see a shrine in the middle of a forest. it was so nice to be surrounded by green again, to smell the earth and the leaves. it had a really mysterious atmosphere, there were moss-covered stones and lamps, raven croaking from the treetops and hardly anybody was there. somehow it really felt sacred.





i think we walked for three hours nonstop, but it was all so fascinating that i realised i had to sit down only when my feet were starting to really hurt. we found this house-thing, it's in the middle of a lake and relaxed a bit.




round 6 pm we went back and had dinner at namba parks (which are so beautiful at night, i've got to take some pictures sometime). at 10 pm i was home again and really happy. it was a very nice day and i finally saw something else than concrete.

today i tried to learn japanese, but i get distracted so easily. a youtube video here, an episode of "how i met your mother" there and time flies by.


      

1 comment:

  1. du weißt gar nicht wie neidisch ich grad wieder auf dich bin! ich liebe shrines! schreine - wie auch immer - gab da auch rollen zum glückbringen und glocken und und und? ach herrlich! hattest du dann einen alptraum? ich glaub hättest du nur böse genug zurückgestarrt, dann wäre des fiech weggerannt!

    ReplyDelete