Day Trip to Nara

Well I told you already that I was staying in Kyoto with my friend, but our first day of vacation was actually spent mostly in Nara. If you're not sure where that is, it's about an hour (by train, is there any other way to travel in Japan?) west from Kyoto station. We were lucky enough to get a rapid train and got there in 40 min, at about 10 am. There were tourist maps in 6 languages at a stand in the station, and unlike both Kyoto and Osaka stations this one was pretty small, we didn't get lost trying to find the exit, and most of the things there were to see are fairly close together and on the same side of the station.

There was a tourist info center right next to the station. I had to take a picture of it though because the building was really interesting. It was mostly western but had some very Asian elements to it in a combination that is very rare to see,  even in a place like Japan that loves to mix the modern and traditional in all kinds of interesting ways. We started out just going down the main street, heading eventually toward the 5 tiered pagoda. We saw an old burial ground on the map, but somehow managed to walk right past it without seeing it. Oh well, the pagoda was pretty cool, and the temple that went with it.

We made our way over to Todaiji Temple from there, passing a couple of gardens, one was free for foreign tourists and the other was about 600 yen for everyone. We didn't end up going to either one because they were both closed for the spring pruning and replanting. If we'd been one week earlier or later in the season we would've been able to go in. Despite this, it was a nice walk through some residential backstreets and the whole place was pretty quiet. Though that may be because it was the off season on a weekday.
If you are wondering, yes, there are deer, after all the whole city was named after the deer, that just wander around and will let you pet them, but only if you have food. If you're not offering them anything to eat they either ignore you or run off if you get too close.

We stopped beside a lake outside Daibutsudo, the temple of the great Buddha, to eat our lunch and one decided that she wanted to share. My friend picked up our food to keep the deer away from it, but the map that we had spread out on the bench between us to look at while we ate wasn't so lucky. This deer here grabbed it right out from under my leg and tried to eat it! I took it away from her then she started snuffling around my legs looking for something else and must have thought my shoelaces looked good because they were her next targets. The deer are nice and all, and there're stands that sell rice cracker things for you to feed them all over the place so it's not like feeding them is discouraged, but you might want to remember that they've learned to beg borrow or steal food if they can get it. Just like seagulls or those disgusting monkeys you see on documentaries about India, so if you wanna eat something yourself, be careful!

 We finished up the afternoon with a trip to the Forest of 1000 Lanterns. The whole thing was beautiful there was a shrine at the beginning and a whole bunch of the stone lanterns lustered everywhere. Then you follow this walking trail back behind the shrine and through the forest where there are torii and lanterns and small shrines dotting the sides of the path. The walk took us about 15 minutes, and when we came out at the other end of the park we were a little out of the city. There were a few more things to do here and there, the Edo-style townhouse probably topping the list, before we headed home. If the gardens had been open it would have been dark by the time we headed home. As it was we got back to the station to head back to the hostel at about 4 pm.

Kyoto Here I Come!

So this trip I've been looking forward to for a while now started today. Got to Kyoto from Tokyo by bus, not uncomfortably,  but the ride was 7 hours. Still for only $60 it was a good trip.  Made it to the hostel in Kyoto, a place called Khaosan Guest House, (apparently they have a few other branches in other big cities) without too much trouble, and so far it's really nice. Lots of people hanging out in the common room and chatting from, so far as I've talked to them, 6 different countries.

Olympic Legwarmers

So in honor of the olympics I thought I would do some knitting. During the games I`m challenging myself to complete a pair of legwarmers. I`m using a pattern called Mosey with some yarn I was
lucky enough to find in Nippori Fabric Town when I was there with a friend. More about that in a bit. The yarn is pure wool and was super cheap, which means not great quality, but these are leg warmers, and I`m a poor college student so thats just how it adds up. Everything`s knitting up really nice so far, except for some dropped stitches and my inability to gauge. (No matter what it turns out longer than it should even if the width is right.)








As I was saying earlier about Nippori Fabric Town; it is not a place for knitters or any other type of needle crafter really. There`s bolts and bolts of fabric overflowing (literally, in boxes on the sidewalks) from shops on either side of the street, and shops selling buttons and thread and dyes and even leather, but I only found two places selling yarn. In both places it was more as an afterthought than as an actual sales item from the looks of it, and one of the places only had a few solid colors of acrylic. My wool yarn was a lucky find, at one of the three Tomato stores on the street and there was just enough of the color for me to make both legwarmers if my gauge is right *cringe* I may have to stop the pattern a few rows early. Luckily this won`t be a problem, and the extra inch I would have added by finishing the complete pattern with my bad gauge would have made them too long anyway.

 This beautiful coat I found on display outside a shop selling all kinds of leather, and smelling like heaven. I would love to own this jacket so I`m showing it off and wishing to no avail that it was priced so I could afford to buy it.

Spring Break! 春休み！

Wow, it`s been a long time since I`ve posted! Sorry for that. So I`ve been quite busy actually, but I won`t bore anyone with school details; say only I am in over my head with studying over break. I`m actually really excited because my mom`s just told me that she was able to get time off work and can come to Japan to see me! Vacation of a lifetime for her, and great time to show off my (admittedly still bad) language skills.

Other than learning 180 kanji and 20 new grammar points in two months and my mom coming to distract me from studying, I`m looking forward to a week long trip to Kyoto and the vicinity coming up here for me in about two weeks. I`m planning on spending lots of money on food and hitting all the open air markets and thrift shops I can find. As far as temples go there`s only a few I have specific plans for visiting, but I`ll see what looks fun to do when I`m there. Ha, I`m not such a good trip planner.

NaNoWriMo is over but I`m still working on my writing, though because of a broken computer, I have been put on hold for posting updates to my writing blog, as well as a lot of other things. I`m borrowing a school computer for this right now actually. I`ve met with my writing buddies about 3 times since NaNo ended actually, and we three are in various stages of still writing to editing. The beauty of using fountain pens while hand writing instead of ball points has recently made itself known as well. I`ve been using this lovely purple
one I found at a nearby stationary shop recently and I love it!

As for knitting ... Sigh. I`m still working on the Haruni Shawl from Ravelry, though I`m now in the final stages. I can`t wait to take it off the needles and block it to see how the lacework looks.




And here`s a lovely picture of a small Buddhist Temple near where I`m living now. We had a cold snap for the last few days and actually got snow yesterday. How cool is that? Of course back home in the US they have about 10in (25cm) on the ground right now. Nonetheless, this was a good picture and I thought I`d share it.