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  Nara, Kinki, Japan
Thursday, October 9, 2008

After our relatively embarrasing 12 o'clock start yesterday, we decided to start today's itinerary at a more respectable time.  Unfortunately this proved more difficult than anticipated due to the Shochu consumed last night.  We made it out by half nine though, following a rather large water spilling incident in the kitchen because an American girl couldn't put a lid on a jug properly.  She looked at me as if I was a five year old.  I looked at her with the blank stare of a serial killer.

The day took an even worse turn when we got to Nara, an ancient town just south of Kyoto, and the first temple, Kofuku-ji, was knocked down.  Apparently they don't bother refurbishing here, they just knock down completely and rebuild from scratch.  Still, it worked for Batman and James Bond.

We moved on to the more 'actually still there' temples and experienced swarms of more wild deer.  These were a more docile sort than the Miyajima ones though and we got some good photos.  There were more intrigued in us than bothersome - although one did take a shine to our ice creams.

The next stop was a huge shrine called Todai-ji which is home to the biggist Buddha statue in Japan.  It was absolutely huge.  There was even a hole in one of the pillars that was replica size of one of the Bhudda's nostrils and if you could fit through it you were said to receive eternal good fortune.  Unfortunately it was only big enough for the local school kids and I don't think my tempura-filled frame would have squeezed through.  That would have been cool though - eternal fortune and all that lark.

Our last stop was Kasuga Taisha which was essentially Brick Tamland's Dream World as it contained some 3000 odd lanterns and lamps.  Big ones, small ones, stone ones, metal ones.  Loads there were.  Loads.  They actually light them all twice a year but unfortunately not while we were there.  I think between the three of us we took about a million photos of lamps.

Nara itself was a small country area compared to the bustling city style of Kyoto and, I guess, Tokyo, but it was really nice and the deers added a real character to the place, walking round the streets and back alleys.

We finished the day in a really tasty Vietnamese restaurant called Com Ngon where the catfish cubes were to die for.  This is a good time to point out how nice everyone is here as well.  The waitress in Com Ngon literally couldn't have been any nicer without exploding!

We're off out in Kyoto for the last time tonight and the see in the early hours of MY BIRTHDAY.  Yaaaaaaaaaay!

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Bear Meets Deer	Contemplating The Lamps	Cooking Vietnamese Style	High Five!
The Big Bhudda

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