Thursday 28th June - Oh deer

The first order of business when I woke up in Nara was to enquire about sending one of my bags ahead to Hiroshima, to save me having to take both up a mountain the next day. In Japan there are many luggage/parcel delivery services called "takyubin" that can get pretty much anything to anywhere within one or two days for minimal cost - this cost me just over a tenner and I was told to drop my bag at reception the following morning just before checking out. If you're in Japan and want to use a takyubin service, it's probably best to have the details of the hotel you want to forward luggage on to available in Japanese as well as English - it makes life a bit easier.

That sorted out with no issues at all, it was time to hit the sights of Nara. I didn't have a particular plan for today, but hoped to at least see Todaiji, Kofukuji and the Kasuga Taisha with its nearby primeval forest. I also wanted to try a local sushi delicacy - kaki-no-hazushi - which is sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves.

I set out via the nearest back-alley to the hotel, and zig-zagged in the direction of the main drag - it's nice to see the quieter side of towns and since I am not on a shopping trip I've taken this approach with most of the places I have been to, pretty much avoiding the main commercial districts entirely save for checking them out in passing. Luckily for me, my route brought me on to the main road just before the Tourist Information centre (quite by chance) so I called in to get a map, and had a brief chat with the very nice man there. I mentioned to him that I had seen a video of Tomayasu Hotei playing guitar in front of Todaiji and he told me that there were sometimes concerts there, and also did I know that Van Halen had announced a tour in Japan? I think he was a fan, and since I had mentioned music, clearly he could share this exciting tidbit without seeming odd, heh.

Map in hand, I carried on up the hill to the other Nara train station - the Kintetsu - which is closer to the sights than the JR station, but provides a nice staging point to get out of the heat on the way. It has a pleasant covered shopping alley in which I spotted one of the recommended take-out sushi places I had read about online and noted its location for later.

Then it was on to Kofokuji, a Buddhist Temple and the closest of the sights on my hit list. And I had barely set foot inside the main courtyard when I was pounced by a Goodwill Guide offering me a tour in English. Goodwill Guides are ubiquitous in Japan, either stationed in tourist information offices, at some attractions on a first-come, first-served policy, or contactable in advance before you travel. They are essentially locals with skills in a particular language (most commonly English) who offer free tours to foreign travellers of their local sights/towns. The only thing you pay for is any tickets they need to get into things and/or their lunch and transport costs if that is part of the tour (for example, some guides will take you to try local foods). Many, though not all, of the guides are pensioners, and uniformly they seem lovely folks from what I observed and experienced.  I had not used one yet, since Matsumoto and Kanazawa castles had plenty of info in English, but as this gentleman was clearly at a loose end and keen to be employed, I took him up on his offer.

It turned out he had been to London some years ago, and we had a chat about London and about Nara, as we walked around the various Kofokuji buildings. I actually found out a lot about the architecture that I did not know before, and he showed me the proper way to do the ritual washing at shrines. We also laughed a little about how many times most of these buildings had burned down and been rebuilt - the pains of using wooden construction. And lastly he told me a little about Buddhism and Shinto, remarking on how it is perfectly fine in Japan to follow both. All in all it was a pleasant forty minutes or so and I'd recommend their services to anyone waning to find out a bit more than you can in a printed guide - this chap came armed with various illustrative sheets showing how things were built, for example. He also told me that these days, Japan buys most of its wood for reconstruction of traditional buildings from Africa. I am not sure if this is due to lack of resources of the right kind or whether they just prefer to deforest someone else's country and I didn't like to ask.

After the tour, I headed onwards, but mindful of tourist mapfuckery, asked a couple of people to check my route on the way to Kasuga Shrine. Nara is a very historic city, which was once (and I think the first) capital of Japan. New York may have been named twice, but Nara is so good it even has its own period of history named after it. It also is home to a cluster of Buddhist temples and shrines, and to many deer, who roam freely in the main temple area - Nara Park - since they are regarded by locals as messengers from god. If this is so, he's the hungriest and most indiscriminate god I have ever heard of, since the deer will follow you forever for the sniff of food or the chance to eat your map out of your hands. But it's funny to observe Japanese schoolkids and foreign tourists doing exactly the wrong things when confronted with largish hungry wild animals who have no fear of humans and can jump/rear quite high. Dealing with herds of greedy lurchers and greyhounds at a few dog rescue events has primed me for this kind of thing so I actually didn't get bothered all day, despite having a pocket full of deer biscuits (you can buy them in the park for 150 yen a pack) with which to reward the ones I took pictures of or petted on my way through. But it was amusing to watch other people holding biscuits up in the air and wondering why the deer were chasing them. Well, duh.


I did, however, get pounced by a Japanese primary school teacher and his herd of pupils, who he encouraged to speak to me in English, after establishing that I didn't mind. They were mostly too shy, but did ask me where I had been and what food I liked to eat in Japan. The teacher also directed me towards Kasuga Shrine so that was my next stop, after which I hoped to check out the primeval forest behind and take the nature walk to Todaiji.

All was well until I actually attempted to find the nature walk. Primeval forest? Check. Signs for Todaiji? Check. But somewhere between the first and second 500 metres I started to realise this was less a nature walk and more a spiralling uphill walk up a mountain. A nice one, I'll give it that - but a hike beyond what I had intended and completely empty of people, which was starting to get a bit creepy until I ran into another class of primary school kids coming down, and this time - thankfully - followed up by a young British guy (turned out to be a history teacher) who walked me back to the last set of signs and explained where I was (yes indeed, halfway up a mountain with lovely views from the top). I decided to carry on since what the hell, I was halfway there, but some way further on I encountered signs warning about snakes (they have cobras in Japan) which pretty much destroyed any enjoyment I had in the walk because I was extremely aware that there were hardly any other walkers heading that way. If I'd not been alone I'd have gone for it, because the views did sound amazing, but as it was I just hiked up to the last rest stop and then turned back, passing only one more person on my way down - an older Japanese guy who gave me a cheery nod and wave.

It wasn't far to Todaiji from the bottom, as I had memorised the kanji for it and identified the appropriate sign right away, so I just took the more conventional route through Nara Park. I never did find that nature walk, but given the apparent snake problem, it's probably just as well.

Todaiji is a Buddhist temple that houses the largest buddha statue in Japan (the second largest is at Kamakura, at the top of the Miura peninsula near Tokyo). It's pretty breathtaking in its size, and the grounds and associated other statues are also equally impressive. Amazingly, as I walked into the temple I ran into the same American family I had run into at Takayama - the guy from San Francisco with his wife, sister-in-law and daughter. What are the chances? So we had a quick chat and I recommended Natadera to them when they come back next to Japan (they were planning a return trip) before heading off to see the buddha.

Also in Todaiji is a wooden pillar with a hole at the foot, and it is said that if you can pass through it, you will gain enlightenment. You have to be pretty slim however, or preferably a kid, in order to do so. But while I was there a couple came in - probably around age 20 or so - and the boyfriend squeezed himself through before trying to encourage his (smaller) girlfriend to follow suit. She seemed convinced she would get stuck and there was much giggling and laughter from him, her, and the few of us who were watching until she finally braved it and we applauded quietly.

After Todaiji I was knackered, so took a looping walk back through the shade of Nara Park. It was approaching 6pm at this point but the busloads of schoolkids were still arriving - the place was literally packed all day, and probably was the busiest place I visited outside of Tokyo. Just as I was leaving the Park to head off towards Kintetsu station, I was hailed by one of the dudes who gives tourists rides in rickshaws - there are quite a few of them in Nara, mostly guys who look to me like they're in bands or similar (long hair, earrings, etc.) and thus don't have the time or appearance to hold down office jobs. Anyway, this guy switched to English to talk to me, even though I laughingly turned down the rickshaw offer, and seemed to want to have some practice at the language so I paused for a while to chat with him.

He immediately demonstrated himself a pretty good Anglophile when my "I live near Manchester" was met with "Oh ho! Manchester United or Manchester City?" I was forced to admit that I followed neither, since I didn't much like football, but undeterred he instead started asking me about where I had been and where I was going. Another question of "why would you want to spend a week in Tokyo???" (Obviously Tokyo is akin to London in this respect ). So, I told him that I was going to attend some rock concerts there, at which he was all ears and asked who I was going to see. "Baku-Chiku", I responded, and I honestly thought he was going to split his face grinning. "Baku-Chiku!! I am a fan too!! They are great!!!" We talked more about music  and it turned out he was also a fan of X-Japan, but I told him I preferred hide's solo work - this also seemed to surprise him (that I knew who hide was) and we talked about other music, like Hotei and SUGIZO before he remembered he was supposed to be trying to get me into his rickshaw. Steering the conversation back to that, he mimed pulling the rickshaw while singing a Buck-Tick song and I really did crack up laughing at that point, as did some of his watching rickshaw buddies. But I still turned him down - with apologies - and told him I needed to walk to lose weight, which made him laugh in turn. Before I walked away, he insisted we shake hands because we were "Baku-Chiku friends!". I have since been told that recognition of Buck-Tick in Japan is rare, since most people don't realise they're still in business after their brief flare of mainstream popularity in the '80s. So this was clearly some kind of Buck-Tick karma at work.

On the way back to the hotel I paused at Kintetsu station to buy some of the sushi I wanted to try (it was lovely, and beautifully wrapped) as well as a piece of heavenly green tea cake, both of which I ate for dinner in my hotel. I would have eaten out, but failed to find any recommendations other than takeaway for the speciality persimmon leaf sushi.

After that it was time to redistribute my packing so that I could send a bag on to Hiroshima and keep a bag with me for the next day's trip to Koyasan, then fall into bed ready for an early start in the morning.

• Pictures of Nara are in my Flickr stream here
• Music for the day was Hotei's version of The Model