Nara

I'm back at school now, but last week I went to Nara south of Kyoto. Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan, currently celebrating its 1300th year since it was made the capital. During that period, Buddhism had a lot of influence in Japan and Nara remained an important religious and cultural center to this day.

One of the most famous buildings in Nara is Todai-ji. It's the largest wooden building in the world and the original (that burned down 400-500 years ago) was even bigger. Inside is a large statue of Buddha:



Nara is well known for the deer that roam the streets freely. The Shinto religion considers them to be the spirits of local resident's ancestors. It's considered very bad luck if one shows up dead in your lawn, so everyone in Nara wakes up early to look for dead deer and, if found, move them to their neighbor's lawn:


There are biscuits you can give the deer for sale at almost every store in the park. The deer are well aware of this fact as they crowd around the baskets holding them:


You have to be careful though, sometimes the deer get aggressive:

A View From the Top of Seoul

Last week my friends and I climbed up Mt. Baegundae in Seoul. It's supposed to have the best view of the city and it certainly doesn't disappoint. It took a little over two hours to get to the top from the bus we took. It was all very difficult and steep; you had to use your hands a lot, especially towards the top.


Here's my friend Jacob on his way up. It's a lot steeper than it looks; you have to hold on the cables on the side to get up:


The area used to have a fortress near the top to help defend Seoul. Most of it's gone now, but there are still some walls around (some of which have been reconstructed). It's amazing that people could drag such large rocks up so high:


Another view from the top. Well before we got there our shirts were soaked through with sweat:


On the way back down a Korean guy called out to me. We stopped and chatted for a little bit. He could actually speak Japanese better than he could speak English.

North Korea

Currently I'm in South Korea with some friends from college. Yesterday we went to the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone, with the USO. It was really interesting to see and an experience worth having by anyone.

The first picture shows the site that, in the 1970s, two American soldiers were killed in the line of duty. At the time, the central part of the DMZ was open to anyone, meaning the North Koreans and Chinese would mix with the South Koreans and Americans. There were different watch towers to make neither side was breaking the armistace, but one US/ROK site was surrounded by North Koreans and blocked from view by the other US/ROK towers by large poplar tree. The Americans/South Koreans tried cutting down the tree but the North Koreans protested. Soon they decided to only to cut down some branches, but this was met by violence, where two American soldiers were killed by axes brutally by North Korean soldiers. Soon afterwards, the area was divided into two different zones for safety:



Blue buildings in this picture all straddle border. The South Korea guards stand facing the North with half their body covered by the building in case someone decides to start shooting. We got to go in the room where the armistice is discussed periodically. The larger building behind it is a visitor's house in North Korea. The person pictured is a US soldier and tour guide for our group:


This building is where larger diplomatic talks are held, including the Six Party Talks for nuclear disarmament:


The South Korean guards usually aren't out like this, but stick around when tourists come to make sure nothing bad happens. They stand in a ready Tae Kwon Do stance that I'm told is very threatening and able to respond to any attack quickly. They also wear dark sunglasses so no one can see their eyes. Badass:

Wada Beach in Fukui Prefecture

Last Sunday I went to the beach the next prefecture over. It was really hot and crowded, but still a nice place to go:




Just off the coast were some rocky islands. You could rent boats to take there, which we did, though on the second day half of us swam out there. The water was clear and the fish plentiful. There was a cliff around back where you could jump from over 10 feet up. The guys I was with caught sea urchins to eat later. I managed to cut my legs and hands here while also ruining a pair of shoes:


This was also a small port with several small fishing boats on the side opposite the beach:


The place we had dinner at gave us a small present - sea bream cut up raw with the head and tail still present:



Except for the sunburn, it was a pretty good trip.

One view of Kyoto

From Fushimi Inari:

Laundry

A week or two ago was the end of the rainy season. Over the course of a month and a half there wasn't so much as two full days of sunny weather and most days were overcast and/or raining for at least a little while. I don't have a dryer, so I have to hang my clothes outside on a sunny day to dry them.* Each morning when I got up for work at 6:30 I had to guess whether or not it would be sunny later so I could hang my clothes out to dry. I was about 1 in 6 or 7 in guessing the correct weather.

Anyway, by the time the rainy season ended I had accumulated a large backlog of clothes to launder. I'm on vacation now and it's extremely hot and sunny, so I've gone about clearing this pile gradually. My last load got washed with an unexpected guest:


It's hard to see, but it's in about the middle of the picture, between the white sheet and the light blue towel. Here's a closer look:


This beetle was about 3 inches, not so big by Japanese bug standards. I have no idea how or why it went in the laundry machine, but I made sure to wash everything again. It seemed completely intact when I threw it out and is still lying on the ground where I threw it. Still, it's the largest bug near my apartment so far, though there was a mukade living in one of my tomato plants earlier.

*I could have gone down to a laundromat to dry clothes, but it seemed pretty busy with everyone else's laundry. Plus it costs about 100 yen for 8-10 minutes of drying.

Osaka Beer Festival

Most stores in Japan that sell beer have maybe 10-20 different varieties made by one of the four main drink companies: Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, or Suntory. Each has one or two 'premium' beers, which is to say actual beer, and a handful of beer hybrids made of rice, corn, and various other fermentables. Most cities will have a limited number of local beers sold in specialty shops and you can usually find foreign beers like Guinness, Heineken, and Budweiser. Bars often have a limited selection on tap and whatever bottles the owner happens to like.

In contrast, the Osaka Beer Festival had over 120 different types of beer. While I know some bars in Minneapolis and Chicago that can say the same thing, I would be hard pressed to find 120 different types of beer in the entire city of Kyoto. Everyone who entered got a small 50 mL glass. It was free with the 4100 yen entrance fee:


Most the beers were Japanese and on tap, but there a few were from other countries and some only came in bottles. Here was some Chimay from Belgium and Anchor from San Francisco:


The event was held in Osaka Dome, which is a baseball stadium that houses the Kintetsu Buffaloes, the only Japanese team to never win the championship. It was at the top of the Dome in an area where you couldn't watch the game. As I walked towards the Dome from the train station I was surprised how many kids were heading that direction. Only a few came up to drink:


Later on some Japanese posed for a picture. Little did they realize my camera was also handy: