Nara

It’s Sunday morning in Japan, 5:30 a.m.  I was so tired last night I fell straight to sleep while watching Japanese Idol.  Not even sure what time that was.  The show, which looked quite similar to American Idol, was some kind of championship and I noticed it was on a channel that doesn’t exist normally…huh!  And now this morning I notice my cell service is out.  Huh.  That’s a problem I hadn’t thought about.

Two days a week Katie teaches in Nara, so we went back there yesterday.  She was exhausted.  She teaches until 9:15 p.m. Friday night, so home around 10:15.  Then 10:30 a.m. Saturday after a 1 hour train ride.  I’m a morning person, so I made an effort to not speak to her on the train.  She was pale and wan, but trotted down those subway stairs like a woman from Brooklyn, not Orlando.  One of the stairwells at Daikokoucho is narrow and wind comes pushing in so fast I grip the handrail because it literally feels like I’m going to be blown down the stairs.  Not Katie–she just flits right down those stairs!

It was sunny and warm yesterday, ultimately 61 degrees.  Katie’s lunch was not until 3:40 p.m. so I had several hours.  I decided to explore the city of Nara.  According to google maps, there was a Starbucks 44 minutes away, due south.  I glanced up at the sun to get my bearings but something didn’t seem right.  I checked my compass and I was sure that south was east.  Even the placement of the sun in the sky was different here.

I haven’t been to San Francisco, but I imagine it similarly hilly to the sidewalk in Nara.  Over the top of the hill there was a beautiful park!  All the grass was still brown, but it was lovely in a city with very few parks of any kind.  Little children ran through the park as in any city.  Boys played catch with a baseball.  One was dribbling a basketball, but there was no hoop in sight.  I noticed this group of boys spoke what sounded like another language or dialect.

This area of the city must be like Clermont to Orlando.  The homes was much bigger, although the yards were small.  The bushes had the look of bonsai plants.  There was a very long line of traffic nearly the entire route.  The street was only two lanes.  I wondered if the city was holding meetings about whether to widen the road, or if they just figure traffic sucks and they can’t wait to get to the train station!

Sunny and 61 felt amazing!  After traipsing up and down the hills I was warm.  I decided that at Starbucks I would try that Sakura Frappucino with the cherry blossoms.  Would that make me a better tourist if I at least tried something new?  Something cold sounded great–I was getting pretty thirsty.

A statue of a family had me thinking about the people who live here.  I tried to keep a soft smile on my face, especially when I passed the ladies at the bus stop.  I wanted to say with my eyes I was no threat–in fact I was scared to death!  I walked so long my mind wandered to home.  I thought about the mother of the student who was hit by a car in my neighborhood.  I thought, it’s no different here, the people are the same.  Working, sleeping on the train, worrying about money, playing with their children.  I saw a little girl of about 8 pushing a stroller with her 2 year old baby sister in it, both of them wearing cherry blossom pink.  They were both silent as they moved along and I wondered if they were okay.  10 minutes later I saw their lovely mother with them, in a coat of softest pink.

Two ladies my age were talking on the foot bridge over the road.  Acquaintances.  When they said goodbye, they didn’t hug or kiss-kiss on the right and left cheeks.  They bowed to each other.  Twice.  Then there was a group of 5 women, each with a stroller and small child–a mom’s club.

Finally I made it to Starbucks after an hour and a half.  As I stood in line, the clerk handed out menus.  There was my drink:  SOLD OUT stamped over the picture.  Ha!  I laughed out loud:)  I had been foiled by this city I was trying so hard to embrace.  I guess like anything worthwhile, it just wasn’t gonna come that easily <3

I picked up Katie and we went back to the food court for more Udon noodles, with the orange egg yoke.  I got another piece of tempura fried fish–or so I thought.  It was simply not chewable.  I could not even tear it with my fingers!  Since the food at the noodle store is served in glass bowls, you return the tray to the counter.  Not wanting to offend, I rolled up the mystery food and hid it in Katie’s McD’s apple pie carton 🙂

During lunch there was a man of about thirty sitting near us.  He was banging his lunch tray and pounding the table, shouting angrily every so often.  People just ignored him and Katie said it was very unusual to see that behavior.  This went on for over 20 minutes.  I admit I felt nervous.  I knew at least that he didn’t have a gun, but I just feel like I stand out so much here, even more than Katie.  When he picked up the entire table and banged it on the floor, then got his tray and left and I was relieved.

Two nights ago I awoke to an obvious alert tone on my t.v.  After watching for a while, I am sure that it was an earthquake alert.  Ugh.

So maybe 2 steps forward, 1 step back.  It’s another fine morning and we are going today to Umeda–one of the biggest areas of the city.  No cell service still.  Guess I’ll have to walk outside to check the weather–how inconvenient 🙂

Photo:  Katie Sensai going to work on her one year Japanniversary

A word about typos and corrections:  I can’t stand typos, but I think I said early on that I didn’t not plan to read and re-read because I worried I would be unhappy with my writing.  So if there’s something really big, let me know and I’ll  fix it.  Otherwise please ignore.  As for corrections or additions, I do go back and tweak things now and again.  For instance, the comment I made the other day about riding on the escalator on the right.  That is specific to Osaka because that was the city that hosted the World’s Fair.  In the rest of Japan you stand on the left, climb on the right.