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When I first arrived in Japan, I suffered from almost NO jet-lag, due to the fact that I arrived at 1am their time, and because I'd spent nearly 24 hours in transit. I slept right away, and woke up bright and early the next day to begin my adventures.

Homeward bound, my flight schedule went off nearly without a hitch (my third flight--yes, third--landed 10 minutes later than was planned) and I arrived home in my HOUSE by 7:30pm. I went to dinner, went to bed early, and then woke up early to play volleyball all day. I lasted, and without much fatigue (outside of being tired from playing). Afterwards, I went to dinner once more, and then WHAM! Jet-lag.

I crashed HARD by 8:45pm.

I woke up once at 2am to pee, but REFUSED to let myself wake up entirely for fear of being stuck in the sleepless loop for too long into the work week (like how Squiggly is for WEEKS on end). I forced myself to sleep until this morning and now I'm just hoping that I've escaped the horrid grips of THE LAG. I'll keep you posted. Until then, back to Japan stuff...
...

Not just about the Buddha

My trip for today [Wednesday, March 14, 2007] (and possibly my last one for Japan) was all the way out in Nara. That's

• 1 hour subway from Toyotashi to Nagoya
• 1 hour Shinkansen from Nagoya to Kyoto
• 1 hour JR train from Kyoto to Nara

I got a lot of sleeping and reading done, as well as much iPodding too.

My destination had been decided by the fact that while I'd seen shrines, temples and castles, I hadn't really gotten to see the actual statues enshrined inside. Going to Nara was going to guarantee my chance to finally do so. And so, Nara-bound I was.

Getting there was no problem at all (thankfully by NOW I'd gotten the hang of the trains) outside of the 3 hours. Once there, I asked for the English map (yet another thing I'd gotten the hang of) which was well highlighted by the lady in the booth and got me exactly where I'd wanted to go.

While I did see shrines, temples, and pagodas, I also got to see what was in them, and take pictures! Sure, I had to pay admission to each andevery one of tese places, and sure, some of them still prohibited me from taking photos, but I got what I wanted from my trip to Nara.





...

I even got a little more than what I bargained for from Nara--some welcome company!

While touring the shrines, I came across a huge throng of people gathered outside on the lawn of one of the halls. There were policemen, television reporters, photographers, and just a mountain of tourists and curious onlookers such as myself. While everyone was intently waiting for something to happen at this place (I could tell by all of the up-turned faces and the precisely aimed telephotolenses) I couldn't figure out what or when the event was about because there still seemed to be a lot of tourists wandering in and out of the hall.

I finally mustered up the courage to approach a trio standing nearby to ask them if they knew--I'd overheard some strains of English coming from their conversation. Turns out that they had no clue either--yet. From the three of them, Ernesto went up to aske on of th esurround officials what the deal was. In the end, a water purification ceremony was soon to take place in which the priests would sprinkly water on the gathered masses to cleanse them. As a group, we decided not to stick around to get sprayed down on the cool evening--we enjoyed our dry selves.

Instead, our newly formed foursome made its way back to Kyoto, taking the time to know each other. Soba Girl and London Chic had only met Ernesto the other day via a mutual friend from the other side of the globe. Ernesto had been studying Japanese in Kyoto and was playing tour guide to London and Soba as they enjoyed their whirlwind of a Spring Break in Japan. We spent our stroll to the station and on the subway sharing travel stories and sticking our heads into random stores (I ended up with a bottle of blueberry honey) along the way. We also swapped recently visited tourist attractions that we considered must-sees; the girls still had a few days on their trip and therefore were looking for fillers.

By the time we were comfortable and riding the JR back to Kyoto (in the seats we'd flipped to face each other) they'd graciously extended a dinner invitation to me with promises of getting me back onto the Shinkansen on time to make my last train back to Toyotashi. How could I refuse?

Dinner turned out to be at a sushi-go-round restaurant. YUM. Ernesto wisely paced himself while we girls just greedily grabbed at the grub rolling by on the conveyor belt. Ernesto tipped the scales with the too-good sweet potatoes, some eight dishes and 40 minutes later; Soba and London did about 10 dishes each while I did 12--the three of us throwing in the towel after just 20-ish minutes. What can I say? We were hungry!

The oh-so-good grub and the oh-so-awesome company came to aclose too soon as I had to leave on schedule. After exchanging emails and contacts, I of course asked the timid question:
          "Can I take a picture with you guys?"
I don't know what I was so shy for, of COURSE they awesomely complied.


I only wish I'd had more time.