Adventures in Japan

They have ¥180 ramen there too

Before the imperial court moved to Kyoto, they all lived in Nara. It was only the capital for about 74 years, but it's still got a lot of old temples and stuff to look at. Plus a special exhibition of especially well preserved artifacts that's only on until the 15th. It's all only about a 30 minute train ride from here. So we went. We even paid the slightly steep entrance fee to see the special exhibit of the Shoso-in treasures. Luckily, I had the forethought to bring my student ID from the U of R, so I got ¥300 off the price of admission, which nicely offset the cost of an illustrated English guide. The guide turned out to be a pretty worthwhile investment. It explained a lot more than the one or two line English descriptions next to each display in the museum. Plus we weren't allowed to take pictures, so, you know, souvenir. I noticed a fair number of Japanese people taking short little notes as we shuffled between glass cases. Some were even making sketches. It's really none of my business, but I'm curious what they were writing.

After the special exhibit, we still had time to see the rest of the National Museum. Aside from a lot of old Chinese bowls, they displayed mostly Buddhist sculpture. I wouldn't have thought I'd find it all that interesting, what with me not comprehending Buddhism at all, but I thought the sculptures were actually pretty cool, especially the fierce ones. Once again, no pictures, but I'm sure we'll have had our fill of Buddhist statues by the time we go back to Canada. The rest of you will just have to come see them for yourselves.


One final observation: deer are to Nara what Canada geese are to Regina. Which is to say, the park is full of them. And they poop.