The Japanese Adventure -4

Did you know that Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan? Before that the capital used to change according to the hometown of the current emperor. We arrived by train from Kyoto (about an hour with the super fast Shinkansen ;) as usual and spent half a day walking around the deer park. The deer are indigenous to the area and move around freely. While they are not kept in captivity they have gotten used to the people visiting the park and are actively approaching everyone for food. We bought biscuits to feed them and a bunch of deer flocked around us immediately. If you try hiding the biscuits in your pockets they'll start searching for the smell and bury their faces into your clothes. They even ripped up a map I had put in the side pocket of my backpack so I now have a nice bite mark as a souvenir...! Endlessly cute though, I have to say. They just stroll past you as if you're one of them and it's like being in a zoo without cages. The males were particularly calm and were majestically sitting around and even seemingly bowing to us at times. We're guessing that the Japanese deer have acquired some Japanese manners over the years.

On our walk we also came across a really beautiful Japanese garden. A lovely woman came up to us and gave us a short tour with some interesting information about how the gardens were designed and constructed back in the days. There was also a house used for hosting tea ceremonies. Being a cherished traditional custom, the tea ceremonies were held in houses which have main doors that are small and located quite low so that everyone would have to kneel down and crawl to get inside the house. This puts everyone at the same level when attending the tea ceremony, whether they are samurais, royals or of a different social background. The lady also pointed out that the Japanese garden is designed to look very natural even though it is entirely man made (well, maybe "put together" is more appropriate to say). They are really good at creating small intimate spaces within the greater area that you will not necessarily be able to spot from a distance, only once you start walking around in it. Great use of stones and small bridges to connect pieces of land together and trees and bushes that make small "rooms" within the garden and create a landscape with several layers that gives it great depth. I also love the asymmetry of the design which makes it look so natural and not man made at all, which according to the lady, is exactly what the Japanese are going for.

We strolled around taking pictures and spotting the fish in the ponds. I wish I could have cut out and pasted the whole thing into my dad's garden back home.

 Finally we saw what *used to* be the biggest wooden building in the world- a temple that houses a huge Buddha statue. It seemed like a big deal, and sure it is pretty impressive to fit a massive metal sculpture inside a wooden temple, but I was having a really slow and achy day so most of all I just wanted to get back for a final deer-petting before heading back to the station. The weather that day was not exactly helping either and my umbrella came to good use as a shield for the sun.

 Back in Kyoto, we went to Gion for dinner at a restaurant which seemed to have only one option on the menu- a folded okonomiyaki slightly different from the one we had in Hiroshima. We got served in less than two minutes after ordering, ate and took a bus towards an area where one of Kyoto's best "onsen" was supposed to be.

Onsen is a Japanese hot spring/bath where you go for a thorough body wash before hanging out in the different pools/baths and saunas/steam rooms, depending on what is available at said onsen. Some have outside areas as well and these can in some cases have beautiful views to enjoy while you're sitting in a tub... Basically! Onsen is very popular in Japan and smaller, less extravagant bath houses were previously found in almost every neighbourhood especially in Tokyo when houses were very small, often lacking bathrooms. Men and women are in separate areas as you need to strip down to enter, and as I said earlier, you can only go into the pools after you have washed at one of the shower cubicles where they usually have shampoo and soap available as well. There are additional rules too; some places don't let in people with tattoos for instance.

So we tried really hard to find this specific onsen that Trond had read about and probably walked around for half an hour after the really long bus ride from Gion, still pretty lost and unable to find the correct street. I was really restless and tired at this point and left the guys who took a taxi to find the onsen. I had some postcards to finish off anyway so went to a cafe downtown to write these instead.

 The next day we were on the road for the entire day. Our rail passes expired that day and we managed to catch a train from Kyoto to Mishima where we changed to a bus which took us to Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes surrounding Mt. Fuji. We checked into K's house, which is the most amazing hostel I have ever stayed in and I strongly recommend the Mt. Fuji branch to everyone! The staff picked us up from the bus station 10 minutes after we called to say we'd arrived, spoke excellent English and were really helpful in every way. We had booked a private room and slept on Japanese style (tatami) mats covered in crisp sheets. Really comfortable considering we were still sleeping on the floor. The guys were going to climb the mountain in the morning and got some advice from one of the guys in the reception too, who'd probably climbed it several times before. We has pad thai for dinner at a thai restaurant down the street and went to the neighbouring onsen for a bath. This was my first time and for most of the time I was the only girl inside, probably because we came quite late. The outside area had three huge tubs with water constantly running into it and after washing and staying in the hot jacuzzi for a good 10 minutes I stormed outside to cool down in one of these tubs while stargazing and making sure I did not fall asleep and sink into the bottom of the tub. The surrounding garden was also really pleasant and lit up with some fairy lights in one of the trees, feeling kind of magical. I slept like a baby that night!