Nara and Kobe, Japan - Friday, February 12

he day that we travelled from Yokohama to Kobe was a much needed rest. Since there were less than 200 people on the ship we were treated to a fancy dinner (almost as good as the captain’s dinner).

When we arrived in Kobe I immediately got off of the ship and went to a bus that would take me to Nara. I was joining my first Semester at Sea trip, courtesy of one of my students who decided she did not want to attend. It is amazing to me how the students have bought a lot of trips before arriving to Semester at Sea and then when they get here and have made new friends they give up these trips after spending quite some money.

Anyway we had about an hour and half drive before we would reach the 1st of 3 destinations we would be visiting in Nara. The first stop was Horyu-ji and it is said to be one of the most important temples in Japanese history.

We walked around there and came upon a group of Japanese children who were on a field trip and they were very excited to take pictures with our students.

After departing this temple we took a walk through the Nara Deer Park where tame deer are found who at one point in history were seen as messengers to god and if you were to kill one of them you would be executed. Our tour guide let us know that in days long ago if you woke up in the morning and found a dead deer in front of your house you would move it in front of your neighbor’s house and this is the where the phrase “Pass the Buck” came from. I know…who knew!!! These deer definitely did not behave like the skidicious deer that appear in our headlights. It was almost like we were at some sort of petting zoo petting goats but they were deer. They were very pushy deer who if you put your hands in your pockets they assumed you were going to be pulling out food to feed them. They also bowed to you if you bowed to them…it was fascinating!
Here is Toby, one of our faculty members, getting picked on by some deer:

So we pushed our way past the deer towards Toda-ji which is the most important temple in Nara because it houses the Daibutsu (Hall of Great Buddha) and the biggest Buddha in Japan. As we walked in we saw these large statues of what would be the protectors of the Buddha.

Then we saw medicinal Buddha – legend has it that if you are sick or hurt in a particular part of your body and then touch that part of the Buddha while touching that part of yourself you will be cured. Laura had a sore throat and lost her voice and by the evening her voice was back…Don’t knock the power of medicinal Buddha. I touched the Buddha’s stomach just as a proactive measure for the rest of the journey!
I do not really have a stomachache; I am just trying to br proactive.  A preemptive strick as my brother woud call it!!!!

Now we entered the Hall of Great Buddha and it was an amazing site to see, the size of Buddha and the powerfulness of the experience was pretty amazing. These pictures do not really capture the greatness of what we saw.

After we left we went to Kasuga Taisha Shinto Shrine. Now I have been to a lot of temples in my days but I have not seen anything as cool as this. There were these lanterns that lined the way up and we were told that they are only lit twice a year and of course we missed it by a week. It was an awesome site to see and of course we saw a few deer poking their heads here and there. This was the last stop on our tour of Nara and then we headed back to the ship.

I forgot to mention that we were given a box lunch to take with us on this trip. The box lunch was comprised of a lunchmeat sandwich, Capri sun, Oreos, an apple, banana bread, a hardboiled egg and a chicken leg. Yes a chicken leg, not sure why but apparently it was tasty (I did not eat my chicken leg).

So anyway when Laura and I got back to the ship we went into downtown Kobe to find something to eat and went to a department store because in the basement of department stores there are lots of food vendors. So we grabbed some sushi and tempura, found a bench and ate our dinner. The food was not great mostly we think because it was the end of the day. We got a sampler sushi and one of the rolls was one of the most disgusting taste I ever had in my mouth. It was not until the next day did I find out that it is some sort of “spoiled” beans. I think spoiled in this case is fermented but I can not even describe it but it was foul.
Here is a picture that I took the next day at conveyor belt sushi:

The night ended with plans to meet up at 10am with Laura and Janelle to seek out conveyor belt sushi (uoyatei) my last Japanese need!