Haven’t you wanted someone to hold your hand as you embark on something new, something foreign? From research I knew the trip would take four train transferring on three different lines with a 5-10 minute connection time. Saburo assured me I could do it and did it was what I did without holding anyone’s hand.
OVERVIEW
FROM: 8:43 Nara City on local express train to Kyoto City @ 9:30
FROM: 9:52 Kyoto City on Shinkansen to Fukuyama Mihara @ 11:09
From: 11:18 Fukuyama Mihara on Shinkansen Nozomi #111 to Mihara @ 11:09
FROM: 11:18 Fukyama on Kodama #845 to Mihara @ 11:32
FROM: 11:37 Mihara on JR Line to Takehara @ 12:12
Sayōnara to friends who feel more like family. I have spent 17 days in their steady company and each moment has been a gift.
Father drops off and mother picks up children from school. Many, many teachers inside preschool. Of course no pictures allowed inside school. Hinako and Rintaro are bursting with happy energy after school.
Public transportation is orderly. Since COVID benches have been replaced by chairs with safe personal space. Platforms and trains marked for women only. Platforms marked to allow passengers to rapidly depart train. Footprints marked for safe personal spacing before boarding train. But of course, always on time.
OVERVIEW
WALK: 5m walk from Natsuko’s house in Nara City to Shin-Omiya Train Station
TRAIN: 30m from Shin-Omiya Train Station with two transfers to Osaka Station
WALK: Osaka
TRAIN: 30m from Shin-Omiys Station to Shin-Omiya Train Station
WALK: 5m to Natsuko’s house in Nara City
SLEEP: Natsuko’s house in Nara City
Hinako wailed when she first met me. Albeit she was sick. For days she still cried when she saw me. Yesterday she took my handkerchief and was dusting the floor with it. Good curiosity. This morning she said my name. Having finished her breakfast yogurt she wanted more. Hinako graciously accepted my yogurt. We are making good progress as friends ❤️.
Today we go our separate ways. Hinako to kindergarten. Rintaro and parents to his school graduation. How rich to have stayed in their home…real Japan and not the guide book version.
Serendipitously my first night in Nara coincides with Nigatsudo Hall’s annual fire touch procession. Ten 25 feet long torches are carried to the temple’s balcony and held over the crowd’s head allowing the burning embers to shower upon the onlookers. Omizutori is a 1250 year ritual and one of the oldest reoccurring Buddhist events in Japan.
Timing my travels to Japan coincide with plum trees in boom and cherry trees budding.
Part of Nara’s experience is to hand feed crackers to their famous deer. As conditioned as any B.F. Skinner’s laboratory animals, these deer aggressively approach people for food.
It’s hard to imagine the 1692 reconstructed Todaiji Temple is two thirds its original size. Until recently it held the record for the world’s largest wooden building. One of Japan’s largest Buddha bronze statue is housed in the temple.
Linda Scandore 