SWCJ Trip 2025
Nara and Kyoto
Monday, April 14, 2025
I went to the free hotel breakfast buffet. They didn't take my ticket but asked me how many seats I needed. I was shown a few tables for 4 and I sat down at one. The family was taking longer than I expected, so I put my ticket down on the table and walked to the buffet to take a look. When I returned, someone not in my family was sitting down at my table. I guess they didn't tell him the table was taken. Or he didn't pay attention to my ticket. He kindly moved to another before V arrived. We took turns getting our food before Bro and Miss O finally arrived. Breakfast was delicious! I had some Japanese breakfast -- ride, fish with a yummy sauce and vegetables, and tamago (scrambled egg). I also had American breakfast -- pancake, pastry, and hash brown, and smoked salmon. I also had matcha tea, which was from a latte machine.
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| Breakfast |
Everything was oishi (delicious). Well, except for the spice that I tried from a cute tin that had no label. It was very spicy, which I didn't expect because it looked kinda like ground black pepper.
We weren't really planning anything until Brady, at his dorm room in San Diego, sent a message to Miss O about a park where we could feed deer. V was in. I was in. The Millenium Falcos were in (I shall now refer to them as MFs, but don't take that the wrong way. They are lovely people). And thus we came up with a time to meet the MFs at the subway station. We went back to our rooms to get our stuff and met in the lobby. We took pictures beside the rickshaw (I felt like I was too big to get inside. I'm self-conscious these days, especially when I'm with all of these skinny folks).
At Gojo Station, we waited for a while, I think because we thought their hotel was equidistant from ours to the station. All was well, though, and we met up with them on the side with no elevator where I had started my harrowing journey up the steps with my luggage the day before.
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| Just a cute sign holder |
On the train, we could see a lot of the countryside, including the Sakura trees. We were there a bit late in the season, but a least this day, the weather cooperated, and the flowers were not droopy, and they were beautiful. As we stopped at different stations, we could see that the platforms all had vending machines with drinks, and I wished they had those at the metro stations back home.
We got off at Kintetsu Station, and I got my first gachapon of the trip. I got a meerkat with a fishing pole! I was hoping for a hippo, but I like meerkats, too, so I was happy.
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| Me and my teeny tiny meerkat |
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| I think this was a store that wasn't open yet |
Once outside the station, it was a bit of an uphill trek to the park, and the deer were abundant! There were several stands where they sold packs of biscuits to feed them, and the deer followed all of the people with biscuits. V bought some and gave a couple to me to feed some deer. They were so cute the way they bowed their heads to ask for biscuits! Some of them were a little aggressive, and one butted V as she walked away because she was empty-handed, having given away her last one. It was hilarious.
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| Bowing for Biscuits |
We found vending machines, and on the side of the machine was an ad for iced green tea, featuring Shohei Ohtani. Bro told me that there was corn soup in one of them, which Bestie Mich had told me about. So I bought one and it was cold, which I saved for later. I also wanted iced tea, so I got Shohei's brand to take a picture with him.
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Posing with Shohei |
We found the public restroom, which wasn't great but at least it had Western-style toilets, and they weren't terrible. This was one of the places without towels or hand dryers, which was a perfect example of why most Japanese people carry small towels with them. I knew of this custom and yet, there I was without a towel. When I exited the restroom, I saw that Miss O and Miss A were on their way to buy django at a little stand. They kindly shared with us, and it was tasty! I t was grilled mochi on a stick with a little bit of char. YUM.
On the way to the temple, we passed the museum. Outside, there were sculptures of big hands, and I practically yelled at V to get her attention because she needed photos with them. Turns out that they were full-sized replicas of Buddha's hands, which we would see later.
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| The right hand of the Grand Buddha is called a Semui-in. This hand means "taking people's fear". The left hand of the Grand Buddha is called a Yogan-in. This hand means "granting people's wish". |
We saw a creek and Miss O and Miss A were trying to get a perfect picture of a deer, but it kept showing its but to them instead of its face. Rude. But then when we got in line to enter the temple grounds, there were 3 of them looking at us, and I named them Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
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| Corner outside ticket booth entry |
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| It's a turtle dragon! Maybe? |
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| Huey, Dewey, and Louie |
We paid for our tickets and entered the temple grounds of Todai-J. Daibutsen (Great Buddha Hall). We needed to descend a few big stone steps to get to the grounds and walk around.
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| My ticket |
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| Miss O's Signature Pose |
I asked V to take a photo of me washing my hands with the sacred water. You could also drink from it, but I refrained from doing so, although it looked quite refreshing and it was nice and cold.
There were several steps to climb to get to the entrance of the hall. A lot of people stopped outside the entrance, and I thought it was because they really wanted the incense to cover them. But it was actually because it was the best place to get a full shot of the Great Buddha. Buddha is HUGIGANT! Like HUMONGOUS HUGIGANT! It's almost 50 feet high and weighs 500 tons.
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| Great Buddha |
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| Great Buddha different view |
There were some other statues there, as well as a model of the temple grounds. V, Miss O, and I made personalized coins like the ones you used to be able to make at Disneyland, but more solid.
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| Buddha to the Great Buddha's right |
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| Warrior Statue |
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| Model of the temple grounds |
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| Model of Great Buddha Temple |
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| You can see Great Buddha inside! |
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| Buddha to the Great Buddha's left |
I saw that people were in line for something and went to the front of the line to see what was going on. People were trying to thread their bodies through a hole in a pillar. I looked for V because I needed help doing the coin thing, then showed her the line. She just kept wondering why they were doing that. I kinda wanted her to try it because I knew she would fit, but I also forgot that she had shoulder issues, and that would have really messed her up, because people were contorting themselves to get through. We later learned that the thole was the size of one of the nostrils of the Grand Buddha, and "Anyone who can pass through it will have a long and prosperous life and is guaranteed to find enlightenment." (Thanks, Google!)
As we were leaving the temple, we took some stalker photos of the rest of the group before meeting up with them for actual group photos. Miss O and I lagged behind to get a couple of trinkets from the souvenir stand. I found a way to get around the whole stone step thing back to the main pathway, and then bought a couple more little things. I just couldn't get over the cute deer and their biscuits!
We were hungry and some of us had spied a crepe place down the road, so we made our way there. Well, this place was absolutely charming! Some of us ordered tea, for which each of us received a big tray with a pot, cup, strainer, cream, and a time so we knew when it was done steeping. The crepes were delicious, as well as the tea, and I loved the cute heart-shaped cups.
We then had nice full bellies and therefore enough energy to go to the shopping center near the train station. We bought some cute stuff like a wood-carved hippo. We saw a vending machine with macarons! I refrained from getting them, but I was very tempted. We saw a photo place where you could rent kimonos like this deer.
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| How did they get the kimono on the deer? |
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| Mmmm....macarons |
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| Kawaii Nara Deer |
V needed to take photos with giant beer taps, which just started today at the train station. Mom MF and Miss A shopped for Kit Kats. I got a cute drawstring bag that was Nara-themed out of a gachapon machine and was really excited that it was the design I wanted.
We walked back to the train station to get back to our respective hotels to rest a little and freshen up. Then we met up with the MFs in the same building as the Pokémon Center to get dinner at a bar. I tried to order in Japanese, but I either mispronounced or said the wrong word, so the server needed to clarify. there was some unlabeled seasoning that I was too scared to try because of what happened in the morning.
My order was chicken on a stick with some mild dipping sauce, and it was tasty. We marveled at the very realistic-looking food in the display case before heading upstairs to the Pokémon Center.
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| Pikachu with Parasol |
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| Top of Pikachu's Parasol |
I'm not a Pokémon collector, but I had recently seen one that I liked. So I asked Miss O to help me find Rapidash, which is a unicorn with pretty colors in its mane, and is an evolution of Ponyta. Have I confused you, or do you speak Pokémon? V and I got cute Pokémon Center pressed pennies of Pikachu, too.
We had walked in a little bit of rain before dinner, and it had mostly dissipated by the time we walked back. I watched a Japanese game show where in the celebrities (I think) tried to list stuff in the category they were given, kind of like $100K Pyramid back home. Then I watched other TV until I fell asleep.
Next up: KYOTO
