NARA

The next day Katie and I headed to Nara... which was about a 45 minute train ride away. Nara is known for its big buddah, old wooden buildings and deer. LOTS AND LOTS of DEER!

Here is a photo of some dude who was attempting to feed the deer "deer cookies", unfortunatly he kept running away and his girlfriend couldn't get a good picture... therefore he needed to buy another stack of cookies and try again.... TOTAL COMEDY!

This building is said to be the oldest and best preserved wood building still in exsistance. It was HUGE! Inside is a really big Buddah.
In the back of the temple is a wood post with a small hole in it. It is said, that if one were able to crawl through the hole, that person would be able to reach englightenment. This little girl was able to do it with out a problem... however, no adult seemed to fit (damn it... now I need to start prayer and meditation all over again... will there ever be a simple way for me to reach Nirvana?), though I do think this one guy could have done it if he would have taken off his jacket (everyone was trying to cheer him on. GAMBATE!).

Katie decided that we really needed to get deer ears... and not being concerned about making an ass of myself in Japan (Hello, look at my job. I do that every day!) I was happy to go along in the Tom Foolery. We had intended to get a picture of us feeding the deer while wearing the ears, but we got distracted. Oh Well... there is always next time! Katie is posing as an angry deer (GRRRR... Give Me Some F#$@ing Cookies!) and I seem to be posing as a gay Bambi on uppers.
It was a beautiful day in Nara (it was snowing again and I got sunburned). The lady at the tourist office gave us a great route to follow and it wasn't until almost the end of it, when we realised that we were going in the reverse direction as everyone else. I definatly plan to do the same route next time. ***If you ever go to Nara, I recommend bringing your journal (or a couple extra pieces of paper) so that you can get commerative hanko (stamps). I think I racked up like 6 that day!

Here is me tying another bad fortune to a tree. Since Nara is a popular tourist destination, you could get your fortune in Japanese, English, Chinese, French or Spanish.

What you are supposed to do is.... You shake this canister of sticks. Shake it good and think of good thoughts (or something like that). Then you turn the canister on it's side and shake out one stick. On your stick... there will be a specific number. You tell the person behind the counter your number and you get your fortune.

Your fortune will usually give details about your love life, work, money, home life, ect... as well as having an over all ranking of luck. Since my over all rating was "very bad" I decided to get rid of it and tie it to this tree. Hopefully, next time my fortune will better.
The last stop of the day was the oldest 5 tiered pagoda in Japan. As you can see, it indeed has 5 tiers and it looks pretty damn old. I think I have gotten all of the deer poop off my sneakers and my sunburn went away within a few days. I left Nara with a new Hello Kitty Charm (Kitty in a Deer costume, of course (I think I am up to 15 now)) and a couple boxes of omiagi (souvaniers) for my favorite schools(Thanks Katie for bringing those with ya!). Unfortunatly, I did not leave with Katie and for the rest of my journey I was alone.

It is Friday and I have an entire truck load of work to finish before I can leave today. So you are gonna have to wait to see the remainder of the pictures and hear the rest of my travels until I return to work on Monday. It has started to sprinkle outside (it has not rained in weeks)... maybe we will get some snow tonight. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Lots of Love, Jody

PS XOXO