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.
This ain’t Kansas City. Subtle reminders of Japan. Lost a day going east.
In the 1970’s I flew into Charlottesville Airport for the first time and found my Samsonite luggage abandoned on the floor of the one room airport. No luggage carousel, no attendant checking baggage claim tickets…no wait. CHO now boasts of a two floor building complete with luggage carousel and the TSA gauntlet. Albeit passengers walk across the tarmac and mount portable stairs to board planes. I make the walk with pack on back. If it’s not in my backpack, it’s not coming. I leave the luggage carousel for those traveling with Samsonite.
I feel no guilt not revisiting Lisbon’s famous landmarks. Rambling suits my exploration. It is best way to soak up the local color. As Portugal is playing Turkey in the European Football Championship, everywhere people are glued to screens. With simple hand gestures, I keep up with the score and with Portugal’s ultimate victory. The streets are filled with national pride.
Manteigaria is by far the best shop for the regional Portuguese custard pie. Rambling by memory took me within a block of this hilltop location. Then all I needed to do was follow a trail of people with custard pies in hand to find the shop.
Streets become an artistic canvas with black and white stone mosaic patterns. Their visual effects enhance and connect the structures they support.
I felt compelled to recognize Bruno with a toast at our closing dinner. “Thomas Jefferson the third American President said to his daughter Martha, ‘No person will have the occasion to complain of want of time who never looses any. It is wonders how much can be done if we are always doing.’ Always doing is what we have been doing at Baleal Surf School…surf lessons, skate boarding, visiting a Medieval town, touring a custom surfboard factory. Safety and fun always being foremost. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his brother Randolph, ‘No society is so precious as that of one’s own family.’ Baleal Surf School is 45 people…instructors, receptionists, booking agents, equipment supervisors, cooks, servers, and housekeepers who come together as family to ensure we have the best experience regardless of our talent or age. Guests have come here as families…three Australian children and parents, one Swiss teenager and parents, two American brothers, four Italians and five French who are a family of friends plus many solo travelers like Rosie from England, Zi from Singapore, and Hugo from China. Under the magic Bruno has created, we have become one Baleal Surf School family. Let’s raise a glass and toast Bruno.”
