Final Thoughts on Japan

Today is the last day that I am in Japan. I'll be catching an early morning express train to the airport and heading off to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). It's been a good week. During the first half of the week, I was able to see a lot of Japan that I didn't get to see as a missionary. The latter half of the week was filled with lots of memories from the mission. My hostels weren't in areas that I proselytized in, but cities next to my old stomping grounds.

Having seen a lot of sites around the country, I decided to make the last day more relaxing. I got up quite late: 8:45 am. There happened to be a matsuri (festival) in Kyoto this morning, so Yale and I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, it wasn't very exciting—quite boring, in fact. It happened to be one of Japan more formal festival w/ ~500 people dressed in traditional dress parading through the Imperial Grounds. Other matusuris that I've attended are much more lively, filled with music and dancing. I think we stayed about 5 minutes before walking back to Kyoto Station. It's funny, I'm sitting here with other people from the hostel and we all agreed that it was not the most exciting festival. The Australians and Israeli all thought it was boring and disappointing.

Fortunately, Nara proved to be a fun place to visit. I've already been there (several times, in fact), but it was a nice place for Yale to see. It also happens to be Japan's first capital; in all, we visited all three capitals: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara. This city was different because its huge park had tons of deer, the world's largest wooden structure (Todaji Temple), and a really large wooden, Buddha statue. On my walk to Todaji, I was stopped multiple times by Japanese students who wanted to interview me. They all asked about the same questions, but it was fun to see them speak English. We also took lots of pictures with them. It was pretty funny when a deer tried to eat the notebook that the student was reading from. Having not seen Todaji recently, I was impressed by the sheer size of the building. It's something that you have to see for yourself. One fun thing that Yale and I did was squeeze through a wooden beam. There's a hole (the same size as one of Buddha's nostrils) that people can crawl through. It's easy for kids to crawl through, but adults have to put their arms above their head and squirm through. Yale had reservations about the hole, but I convinced him that it was possible (having done it as a missionary).

By the end of my time in Nara, I was exhausted (probably dehydrated). I came back to the hostel and took a long nap. It was wonderful! Well, that's it. I'm just gonna hang out here at the hostel and pack. My feet need a rest (and probably a pedicure). I've walked countless miles in the past week.