Deer, Big Buddha at Todaiji, and Ocean.

We've been busy! It's Golden week which is a group of Japanese holidays that are together and the whole week ends up as a celebration... at least that's what I've been able to figure out. Kevin had the week off from school, excluding Monday, and since then we've been out and about exploring just about everyday. Between that and homework we've been swamped and I haven't had time to post about all the stuff we've been up to. Here are the highlights...

We found a Tony Roma's which is an American food restaurant and we went there twice this week. It was outside of Kyoto station at an Aeon mall. It was delicious and we ate way too much. In the mall we found another kid play place and had some fun with big balloons. Lex loved the big balloons and showed it by screaming. That's pretty much how he communicates every single emotion.

Just a little bit of Engrish that we found funny...

The colonel was chilling out at Aeon mall so we stopped to take a picture. I find this so much creepier than Ronald McDonald and that's saying something as I hate clowns.

Ten points if you know what this is! It's a kind of fruit.

Kevin is raising a gamer whether I like it or not. Lex is enthralled with buttons of all kinds, and especially Daddy's DS and tablet. He says it's even more interesting to play with when Daddy is trying to use it. 

This is one of the first places we went to during Golden week. We went to Kyoto Station and hopped on a bus without plans ahead of time for where we were going. We ended up at Kinkakuji. It's a golden pavilion, one of two. It was built for or by a shogun that wanted it turned into a Zen buddhist temple upon his death. It's gold leafed, even though it might look yellow in the picture. It was beautiful in person.

This is another picture closer up, it's not a huge building and has actually been burnt down three times since it was originally built, once in 1950 by a fanatic monk. The two other times were due to war.

There is a trail through the complex that takes tourists through a garden and there was plenty of natural beauty to take in.

The next day we decided it was a good day to go to Nara. It was about an hour train ride to the station than from there about a 45 minute walk to the deer and temples. Alexander is pretty good when traveling and likes to look out the windows. He does not like being unable to walk while the train is in motion and occassionally tries to escape our grasp.

Ta Da! The deer! This was a pushy little fella who gave Kevin some nods instead of bows like the more respectful deer do. He realized we had a stack of cookies and was all over that. These deer were literally everywhere and just roaming about. It was strange, a little intimidating and fun to see. It's intimidating to have unpredictable wild animals roaming about and in very close proximity but for the most part, they're pretty well behaved and tolerant of all sorts of people. There are warnings posted about explaining what not to and what to be careful of as well. 

The deer were more interested in Alexander than he was in them. After about five minutes he was bored. I on the other hand was having a blast. 

While in Nara a woman came up to us who was a native and spoke Japanese. She asked us if we wanted a free tour and we said "heck yes!" or something more polite. This was an amazing building she showed us called a Pagoda. It's five stories and almost entirely made of wood, like just wood. No nails, etc. It fits together like a puzzle piece, was built in the 8th century and has survived earthquakes and everything else Japan has to offer that makes it hard for buildings to survive. It has a pole inside, pole isn't really the right word, a column maybe. It's set on the floor in the center and helps stabilize the building while absorbing shock from earthquakes and does what they call a snake dance with how it moves while absorbing the energy. 

Throughout the city there are monks that are collecting money for their temples or shrines or something and this one was nice enough to allow Kevin to take a picture with him. We gave him some coins and he gave us some crackers. 

This isn't too bad in the picture but the crowds in Nara were really really REALLY bad. There were thousands of school kids in group after group visiting and so many other people. I'm not sure why the day we went was significant but there ended up being a special parade which we got some pictures of below. So where's Waldo, I mean Kevin?

The deer gather around the temple area at Todaiji which is where the big Biddha is. He's huge, and there are guardians within the temple as well... as you can see from the rare picture including me below.  

The guardians are big, but Buddha is at least twice their size. They say if you can fit in his nostril it's good luck, so rather than having people break his nose... again, they carved a nostril size hole in one of the columns for people to crawl through. The school kids were having a blast with it and could pretty easily fit through. 

These were my favorites in the parade. Look at those shoes! There were tons of different shoes and hats on the monks and I'm sure they mean something I just don't know what their symbolism is aside from rank. 

There was a woman sitting in the carrier and she was supposed to represent the child spirit of youth and good growth... as least according to our 85 year old neighbor. We'll have to take a picture with him too. I have no idea how old he actually is but he loves to chat and says welcome home, in Japanese, whenever he sees us coming back in the afternoon or evenings from exploring, which is fairly often.

The streets of Nara were filled with vendors. They had french fries, meat on a stick, cotton candy (no flavor just spun sugar) corn on the cob, some mushy things, pancake looking things that did not taste like pancakes, lots and lots of octopus in battered balls, and chocolate covered bananas on a stick. 

So that was Nara. We took the next day pretty easy and stayed around the apartment to get some homework and laundry done. I was expecting to blog that day but was kept busy by the lovely little child below, who decided he did not want pancakes he wanted pancake powder. I took the picture then he stuck his face right back down in the bowl. 

I promise he's not starving and does have better options than pancake powder. I'm also supposed to mention that he's in a pink diaper because he is borrowing Ellie's cloth diapers while in Japan.

Somehow taking pictures makes it seem a little less traumatic, dire or even messy. It cleaned up easy enough. 

Another train ride! This one was two hours. It wouldn't have been that long but instead of rapid transit we took a local train that stopped well over 20 times. It wasn't bad though and we got too see a lot of different parts of Japan out the window including Osaka and Kobe. 

The beach! We made it to the ocean safe and sound. It was a little breezy out but sunny and it felt good. 

I just LOVE this picture!

and a video just for good measure. I was zoomed in when I started filming and couldn't un-zoom while recording so the two of them end up really big. You also get a glance at the lady stalking our baby. I'm trying to be understanding and patient. I totally get that Lex is a novelty here and doesn't look like anyone else but I'm having to get aggressive and I don't like it. People come up to him without asking, touch or try to hold him and take pictures. At this point my politeness and tolerance are wearing thin. Look but don't touch and no pictures! 

I hope that wasn't too terribly long. We're having a blast and trying to make as much of this experience and opportunity as possible.