I've been fairly busy since I got back to the States, which is my excuse for waiting so long to post the conclusion to my trip. I've also been dealing with a very strange case of jet-lag, which didn't strike until I'd gotten several nights of sleep. Well, here's what happened.
Tuesday
Nara is far cooler than Kyoto. The weather there was some of the most pleasant weather I’ve experienced in Japan (that may just be because of the contrast with Kyoto. Most of us left our backpacks and other carrying containers in lockers at the Nara station (we checked out of the K’s House, so we couldn’t leave them there). I carried my backpack for the entire day. Why? Because it cost 300 yen to get a locker and they only took 100 yen coins. I I had remembered that I carried more hundred yen coins in a different pocket, I would have gotten one, but I thought I only had one 100 yen coin with me.
Almost as soon as we’d left the station in Nara, we saw deer. The deer in Nara have no fear of man. One of our group, Ashlie, went up to one of the deer to give it some of her drink (I don’t know why) and it took the map she was holding instead. She tried to get the map back, but the deer never let her get a hold on it.
As we walked to the Todaiji Temple we encountered many more deer. Many, as in, I’m not sure if herds in the wild have this many deer. People were selling packs of cookies to feed the deer for 150 yen each. Several of my companions bought packs of them. The deer were oddly polite. Yes, polite, which is not a word often used to describe anything besides humans. It was possible to get the deer to bow.
The Todaiji Temple had a very big Buddha and a decent souvenir shop. It also banned people from using tripods to take pictures, for some reason. About 3 seconds after I saw a sign saying “No Tripods” I saw a woman setting up a tripod. Some people just have no manners.
We returned to the station for lunch. I eventually found my way to a McDonald’s, having decided that I was well and truly fed up with Japanese food. I decided to try out the Mega Mac with its accompanying meal. It was very filling, but the taste left something to be desired. At least I’ve satisfied my desire to give it a try.
It was then time to go to one last temple. No, wait, shrine. Temples (in Japan) are Buddhist, shrines are Shinto. Honestly, it wasn’t very memorable, which is why I had trouble remembering which it was. There were definitely miko attending some of the windows there, so it must have been a Shinto shrine. What I most remember about the shrine are the interactions we had with the deer there. I gave a deer cookie to a deer by holding it in my mouth. I was not foolish enough to be the first one to do it. Another student made sure that the deer didn’t bite his lips off when he did so before I gave one a cookie.
We had to head back to Kyoto after the last shrine. Or so we thought. Turned out that we had a couple more hours than we wanted. When we arrived at the station (and went through the ticket area) we found out that someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of one of the Shinkansen bullet trains. As a result, all of the trains were delayed by around two hours. Bad news for both commuters and anyone who cared about the man who killed himself. Although I was looking in a different direction at the time, my companions said that when one of the Shinkansen pulled up, it had a splatter of red and a dent on the front of it.
When we finally got back to the guest house, it was past 10:00 PM, which is why I didn’t write anything that night.
Wednesday
Our last full day in Japan, and my last chance to get the figurines I wanted.
The weather in Tokyo seemed to be much cooler than it had been before we went to Kyoto. I haven’t checked the weather reports, so I don’t know if it actually cooled down or if it was just because after Kyoto, not much can feel hot to me. In any case, I found movement outdoors to be very easy.
After a quick check-in online in the morning, and sending off an email to my family, I went over to Machida. I wanted to get more figurines, and this was my last chance. I had some trouble finding my way back to the department store with the right machines, but after I found the McDonald’s I’d eaten at on Sunday, it was easy. The machines only accepted 100 yen coins, and I’d decided that before going to the arcade and reducing a bill to coins, that I would try it with the 100 yen coins I’d acquired through purchases on the previous day. Three tries, three of the same figurine which I already had. I went to the arcade, exchanged a 2000 yen note ($20), and returned to challenge the machines again. In hindsight, my obsession seems a bit silly. I received a repeat, a repeat, new-but-not-quite-right, and finally the one I was looking for. To make up for spending money so recklessly, I decided that that would be the last bill I spent while in Japan. I visited Yodobashi Camera one last time to say goodbye, and left Machida for the second-to-last time.
By the time I got back, there wasn’t really time to get online again before a meeting scheduled for 4:30. I spent most of the time between my return and the meeting packing my things. A lot of the people were missing when the meeting time came around; they had gone to the Studio Ghibli Museum and most had not yet returned. In truth, the meeting was nothing important, just Kazuko again telling us about how we’d have to be packed and ready to go early on Thursday. It would have been easier for her to give the information to those of us who’d been to Kyoto and have us pass it on the previous night. It amounted to about two sentences’ worth of information.
We didn’t have as much involvement in the planning of the Sayonara Party as we’d been led to believe that we would. Yes, it was Kazuko’s doing again. I’ve been rather hard on her, but I must soften it with the fact that this was the first time the trip was done. Presumably she’ll know better next year. Back to the party. Poor, poor Sam 1. He’d been alarmed at the thought that we might have to do something big (there had bee mentions of a song and dance number), so he wrote a speech instead. By the time he found out that we didn’t all have to do something, Kazuko knew about his speech and he had to give it. Angela also spoke, and Billy sang a song while playing his guitar. There was some food and a few pictures, and that was mostly it.
Most of the group went out after the party. Some of them were talking about staying up all night so that they could sleep on the plane. As one of the first people up each day, I can say with certainty that not one of them succeeded. I didn’t go out, since I’d decided not to spend any significant amounts of money, which I would have had to do. The only other people in the guest house at the time were Billy and his Japanese girlfriend (I know her name, I just think it more respectful not to mention the names of our Japanese guides). As he was serenading her upstairs, I spent the time downstairs. Ended up falling asleep down there, before Billy and his girlfriend came down and I went back upstairs.
Thursday
The day we left Japan. Or most of us did, anyways.
I woke up just as early as normal, which left me quite bored for a while. I’d packed my laptop the previous night, and had no desire to dig it out of my backpack. I was able t finish packing in a matter of minutes, while a lot of the others needed all the time they had. The greatest difficulty I had was when one of my figurines lost a part, and I had to search underneath my bed for it. Those of us who weren’t packing were also doing a bit of cleaning.
We had one more meeting, this time with many of the local students and some of the teachers there. They helped us out in getting the refrigerator emptied and stuff like that. Kazuko was constantly alternating between telling us “That isn’t their job! Clean up!” and “Everybody, come in for the meeting!’ At times, I think she even did the two within the same minute. The meeting was pointless, anyways, as we’d gone over everything the previous night.
We went to Machida one last time, where we caught a bus after a considerable wait (and Kazuko drafting two of the guys to carry her luggage, even after she told us to pack light). The bus ride was around two hours long, and I might have caught a few minutes of sleep on it. Finally, we made it to the airport.
Remember how I said most of us left Japan? Well, Ryan (the guy who I said should have insurance taken out on him so long ago) lost his passport. He had to make his way to the US Embassy in order to fix his problem. We had thought that a copy of his passport would be enough, but it wasn’t. Make a note of that: real passport only. I just hope he didn’t use any of the ways Sam 1 suggested to get deported. Without a passport, they wouldn’t know where to deport him to.
Not much to say about the plane ride. I spent about four hours of it talking to Sam 1, next to whom I had been seated. The other four or five hours were mostly spent listening to music, trying to watch fragments of movies, and playing my DS.
Finally, we arrived back in America. Most of us managed to stick in a group until we parted at the pick-up location. We managed to stick together through the initial screening, baggage claim (where Kazuko left us), customs, and the subway trains that took us between the arrival area and the main part of the airport. Quite impressive, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment