Deer, Buddha, and Mountains

Walking along the path at the end of a very long day in Nara, patting the deer as I walk past them. The ancient capital of Japan, it dates back to the 700s, before Kyoto and long before Tokyo. It contains no less than 1,000,000,000 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (I counted), but is far smaller than Kyoto, and easily navigable on foot. It also has deer...lots of deer. These are not your pleasant everyday deer, but super-intelligent deer which know where the food stalls are, and are fully capable of ripping the little biscuits out of whoevers pocket they may be in. I spent the day looking at Buddhas - lots and lots of Buddhas. In the museum they have statues of all different Buddhas (there are many in fact - from the familiar Shakyamuni Tathagata to the 11 headed, 1000 armed Kannon) and from all different places and ages. From 5th century Chinese to 19th century Japanese, its like a Buddha emporium. And when you've had enough of the museums, there are of course the temples - including the one and only "Daibutsuden". The Daibustuden is the world's largest wooden building (its really, really, really big) housing, you guessed it, the worlds largest indoor buddha. It's also really, really big.

However, when I arrive at the daibutsuden it turns out there's only one thing as capable of attracting a crowd as the gargantuan buddha, and that's me. Crowds of schoolchildren flock around the temples, and upon seeing me scurry up in groups with "excuse me could we please ask you a question???". The question would eventually come, and many more after that. I soon got used to the routine (they usually had a set number of questions they had to ask, in a set order), and they always finished by saying together "thank you very much have a nice day goodbye", which I thought was very cute. On top of that, I had the usual foibles of celebrity life, such as the occasional passing "hello!" from someone I had never met, and a few photos with groups of people who didn't even know my name. Why do they want a photo of me?! What are they going to say? "Hey mum, I saw a guy today, here's a photo of us together". What kind of a photo is that?!

Anyway, the point is I was very tired by the end of the day, so I went for a brief walk in the park. I saw a forest path leading upwards, and I thought it looked rather nice, so I followed it. Buddha statues begin to appear once again (some once again with many more arms than the average person), and I begin to think that maybe this path leads to some super special temple in the forest (in Kyoto and Nara, that line of thinking generally works, as there are temples everywhere). Half an hour later I find myself hiking up a massive slope, through thicker and thicker forest, thinking "why exactly did I come here?". But something spurs me on higher and higher, and I eventually come out onto a barren mountaintop, where a spectacular view awaits me (I can even see the point far, far below where I started climbing). I see another point even higher, and something mystical draws me up there, and my mind still clings to the idea that some mysterious temple or otherworldly force awaits me there. By now all remnants of civilization are gone, just me and the deer. Even the sounds of the city have vanished far below, and I am completely, totally alone on what seems to be a rather abandoned mountain track. Finally, I reach the peak of the mountain...

Christoph?!

Yep, thats right, Christoph. Never mind that I left him in a city some 60km north of here. Never mind that I had no idea where he was going, or what he was doing from now on. Here he is, right in front of me. Attempting to contain the "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD", I instead try to smile and look cool, like cosmic coincidences happen to me all the time. Turns out he did a similiar thing to me, just randomly saw the mountain top and decided to climb it. The path isnt as abandoned as I thought however, I just took a rather foresty shortcut - it is a tourist highlight, complete with a 150 yen charge to access the top of the mountain (luckily, its closed by now, so I don't pay). So we stand around on top of the world, looking down on Nara and over the 360 degree panaroma of the mountains that surround us, and talk about this and that. He is such a fun person, so artistic. He likes to take time with everything he does, and is quite happy spending an age standing on the mountain top taking it all in. It proves to be a good opportunity to ask more about his artwork, now that I had seen it, and his music (turns out he was the saxophone player in a punk band...that's right, punk saxophone!). The walk down in the failing light is painful, but much better with company.

And so another day ends....

As a side note, some of you may well have noticed that in writing these blogs I tend to write absolutely every tiny detail. That's because this is actually more of a journal than a blog, its for my own purposes so that I am able to recollect these little details when I am 90. I do not expect you to hang on every word, in fact I would find it rather creepy if you did (Grace and Demi, this means you!). For those of you with jobs (Or homework....Grace and Demi!!!), please feel free to just check my photos instead to get a rough idea of where I've been and what I'm doing. It's all there, just with less words and things.