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Well, I arrived in Nara, dragged my heavy bags five minutes down the road to my hotel, and checked in. They stored my bags (and I eventually found them in my room later) and I headed off to walk to Nara's other train station (run by a different company than JR) to meet with one of the archaeologist's who is helping me out here in Japan. We almost missed each other due to rain and poor directions, but eventually we caught a taxi to the Nara... well, it's the Nara cultural properties office on the grounds of the Heicho palace complex. I was there to meet two of Japan's leading bead experts which I did, but I had very good timing because I not only met two others working with XRF, but also the most famous XRF archaeologist happened to be there, so I met him and was told to email him if I have any questions. *shakes fist in victory* After that, two of the others and I headed into Nara to eat and drink (which was very Japanese and very archaeologist of us). It was a proper Japanese drinking place where you just order a bunch of dishes which everyone shares, so we had things like sashimi, a cabbage salad, octopus fried in butter, fried chicken, and a hilarious tasting rice pizza. Drinks were beer and a German Rhine white wine. We planned out research trips while we partied *L* I then headed rather drunkly back to my hotel. The hotel room faces the JR station and I can look down on the trains. This doesn't bother me since train noises don't wake me up. What I appreciate more is that I'm at the end of a non-smoke filled hallway whose rooms often aren't fully booked, so other people's noise rarely wakes me up. A dripping noise in the bathroom has made me set up my sound machine though which takes care of all of those problems. I then headed out to buy some food for breakfast for the next few days since there's a supermarket under the station before sobering up in my room.
The next day, I headed out of my room in the late morning to let the maids do their work while I sat in a cafe to work on my fulbright ap. In contrast to Korea though, almost no cafe's here in Japan (or at least in the rural areas that make up Nara) offer free wifi. Nor does my hotel offer wifi anywhere but on the first floor. And to top it off, my phone has absolutely no reception so I'm communicating solely by the internet for awhile. In the evening, I headed out for a nice walk towards Nara park. I was intent to head into the park, but I got distracted and veered off down another street before eventually turning around. I was intent on okonomiyaki for dinner, and there was a fairly nice place at the end of the road which leads to the park. I ordered a beef okonomiyaki, but was sad they didn't let you cook it at your table. They controlled how much sauce and mayonnaise you were allowed as well which was a bit of a pain. Overall, I wasn't that impressed, but it was by no means bad. I just have high standards for okonomiyaki. I then headed back to my hotel, stopping to buy an ice cream sandwich along the way.
The next day, I made plans to actually do something. I had only been to the big Todaiji temple and a bunch of smaller temples on the outskirts the last time I was in Nara so I made it my goal to go see the other big shrines I had missed and the national museum. There's been a typhoon lingering around Japan, meaning lots of rain at random times. I knew that there would be rain in the morning so I bought an umbrella at the 100yen shop (yes, Japan's one of the most expensive countries in the world but you can buy an umbrella for a dollar *shrugs*), and wore sandals with no socks. This turned out to be a good plan since it poured buckets. Enough that my little umbrella was overwhelmed by the downpour and I took shelter in a covered shopping are until the worst of it disappeared. I then walked in the pouring rain into Nara park. Every time I see the deer in Nara park, I'm reminded of that weird little Japanese drama (Shika Otoko Aoniyoshi) about the guy who could talk to deer who humiliated him for being a dumbass while they tried to tell him about the apocalypse that was coming (sadly, that is not the weirdest J. drama I've ever watched). Or to put it another way, the deer in Nara park are creepy assholes, though they sure do know how to work the tourists. I just worry that every picture I took of them their eyes are glowing... Plus, I watched one deer chase a guy down the street trying to spear him with its antlers. These deer mean business.
Anyway, deer ranting aside. You can assume they were watching my every move all day. I stopped at a convenience store and bought some sushi and fruit in jelly for lunch. I also bought some pizza chips (or pizza potatoes as they are called on the bag). These are pretty much the most delicious chips in the world with actual cheese melted onto them! They are very bad for your, but oh so tasty *sigh* I headed into the park proper, walking the 1.5km or so to the famous Kasuga Taisha shrine. This shrine is famous for the stone lanterns which line the paths all around the shrine. They only light them up twice a year which makes me sad I didn't figure out where the shrine was last time I was in Nara since I was there during one of those two times (Obon and New Years). However, the rain was still coming down steadily so I watched a shinto ritual at a nearby smaller shrine before heading into the main shrine. I then bought some charms, and a fortune. They sell them being held in the mouths of these adorable porcelain deer which I couldn't resist. I was also pretty happy to get a big luck fortune. In Japan, that's the sort of fortune you keep in your wallet to show your friends so yay! I then headed down a nice path, following one of the many streams through the park, past the entrance to Todaiji and to the Nara National Museum. There didn't seem to be anywhere to eat available (I later learned it was underground) so instead I propped myself against a pillar in front of the museum and watched the carp in the pond and the deer behind it frolic while eating lunch. That done, I headed into the museum, got a student discount ticket and headed in to look at a lot of Buddhist statues on special exhibit. I've taken a class on Buddhist art history before so the displays made a lot more sense than they might have and there were some really famous statues mixed in there. I then wearily made my way through the underground passageway/museum store/cafe to the permanent display area of the museum which mostly had more Buddhist statues though there was inexplicably a display of Shang dynasty onwards bronze vessels. Those were pretty cool to see. My feet were already dragging at this point but there seemed no sense in skipping Todaiji since I was right there. I walked down the long walk way to the temple, bought a ticket to see the temple's treasure hall which is very small and not worth it unless you do what I did and get a combined ticket with seeing the main temple of Todaiji. I first walked around the temple to see the emperor' storehouse but turns out you can't get in unless you make a reservation, so I headed back around and inside to see the Daibutsu (big Buddha) again. I've seen it before but Todaiji was worth seeing twice plus it was fun to get different pictures. I then headed to the right hand area of the temple complex. This houses the Sangatsu Hall which houses one of the pretties images of the many armed Kanon you'll ever see plus a bunch of other old/famous Buddhist statues. No pictures are allowed and it's a bit crazy to be charged $5 to simply go in to look at them, but they really are quite cool and I spent more time studying them since I couldn't take a pic. Next to the hall was another shrine whose name I can't recall but I think it means Second Hall or something. It's up on a hill and has a really good view of the rest of Nara park from its balcony. I headed down the steps then and through the rest of the temple before making my way through the park and back to the center of Nara. My feet were killing me with every step so even though it was a bit early for dinner, I ended up hitting up another okonomiyaki place for dinner. This place was a bit more expensive than the last one, but the okonomiyaki was delicious and they let me chose my toppings so cheese and pork it was. They made it hiroshima style with noodles in it too. I then headed back to the hotel, and took a long soak in the bath to ease my aching feet (since I'd walked several kilometres that day).
The next day it was supposed to rain the whole day due to the typhoon, my feet were still killing me, and the museums are all closed on Mondays. So I was left to find things to do which were inside, didn't require a view or lots of walking and weren't museums. I settled on the Osaka aquarium and Spaworld. Despite what it says online, it's not actually that hard to get to the aquarium. Even the walk from the station isn't bad. The aquarium itself is amazing. The habitats they've set up extend several floors downward so you can see the top of, say, the Aleutian islands, then the middle, then the bottom of the tank. You start on the 8th floor then work your way down. Somewhere on the 6th or 5th floor you start walking in a spiral around a massive tank in the middle which contains two whale sharks who were kind of mesmerizing to watch. I have so many pictures of them and I sat for awhlie just watching. There was also one of the best sea turtle tanks I've ever seen. They turtles were so close up and not mixed with a million other species as they are in most aquariums. Plus, they had a really impressive selection of jellyfish. That and a peaceful atmosphere is pretty much all I ask for in an aquarium so I was pretty content. I also spent far too much in their giftshop. I then headed back to the station, stopping in the mall along the way because it was out of the rain. There I was cleverly lured into a store devoted entirely to One Piece and Ge Ge Ge Kitaro. I had to buy a bit of merchandise from each. I then stopped for lunch. Okonomiyaki osaka style is pretty much a city wide phenomenon so it didn't surprise me to find it in the food court of the mall. I ordered a sort of everything okonoimyaki with cheese on top (you may have noticed by this point that I love okonomiyaki), and a taiyaki (a fish shaped red bean pastry) for desert. I ate that in the food court before heading out to Spaworld.
Spaworld is a crazy 8 floor hotel/onsen/amusement park/restaurant/spa/etc. etc. There are two floors which are just onsen, one Japanese, and one European. Each floor is given over to men or women for the month. I thought I would have to pay a lot to get in but it turns out the internet was wrong and the ticket was only about $10. I headed in, stored my shoes, and brought my bag upstairs. I totally forgot to bring a bathing suit on this trip (they do rent them there but there is no way any of them would fit around my breasts), so I couldn't take advantage of the adorable waterpark on the 8th floor, though it mostly seemed to require inner tubes anyway. It had a great view though which I checked out later. The floor for women this month is the European floor. I changed out of everything, wrapped a bright orange towel around what parts of me it would cover (the towels will cover you if you don't have big breasts... so they never cover me to any extent and I tend to just not bother after I get into the first onsen pool) and headed for the onsen pools and sauna. You walk in through a corridor which sprays you with jets of water, though surprisingly for Japan, you aren't asked to wash off more than that before getting in the onsen. You're greeted then by a replica of the Trevi fountain. So, you know, if you ever wanted to bathe in 105 degree water in front of a Trevi fountain with less horses, you now know where to go to fulfil that dream. I headed around the corner to explore what else was available and it was a lot. There were at least 10 pools in there and maybe more depending on how you count them. And five saunas to go with them. Everything in the building is paid for by the bracelet you wear which you square up when you leave, so you can just sit there naked at tables in the cafe, dipping your feet in sauna water while you eat shaved ice and watch tv. I gave myself a more thorough washing over before I headed into the pools. My first stop was a milk, honey, and royal jelly pool situated in a fake grotto. It had a nice atmosphere and great water though it wasn't comfortable to sit in for long due to the fake rock walls. I then grabbed the first of many drinks of ice cold water from a fountain before hitting the next set of pools. I visited the ice pool, wetting down my towel (which I mostly perch on my head like most Japanese women do) before heading into the cooler dry sauna. I couldn't go in the hotter one due to both the heat and also because it had an open charcoal fire. I lay there until the towel which I used to cover my face had dried out before heading out. I then headed into the Egyptian themed room (each room had a theme though some weren't quite so visible. I think the saunas were in the Alps for example) where there were herbal baths full of rosemary, and lavender and what not. After soaking in them for a bit, I headed into a side door which intrigued me. There, women were splashing liquid mud all over their bodies using giant ladles from a tub of mud. I shrugged and did the same. You washed it off a few minutes later under a shower then headed out. I wandered through the cafe to the outside area where an impressive waterfall cascaded down two sides of one pool. It made a great massage method, and there were seats behind the waterfall. It was so nice to sit back there in between using the waterfall as a massager. In other nearby pools, there were flat beds of rock with rock pillows allowing about two inches of water to set on them. I simply laid down and almost fell asleep though eventually I got too hot since the water was 106 degrees (they tell you the temp of all the pools). I headed out to get more water, then after cooling down near the ice pool again, I headed into the salt sauna. You sit on a mat you take in with you and rub salt into your skin, and heaven forbid you have any cuts on you *L* I stood that for about seven minutes before deciding enough was enough. I showered off then sat in some much cooler tubs which should have had water jets but apparently they no longer work any more. I then went out to get my showering stuff (mostly a comb was all that was needed since the bath products in high end onsen are usually pretty good and include conditioner which, for example, my business hotel does not). I then came back in, hit up the big pool in front of the fountain then hit up the wet sauna which was apparently rose scented. Unfortunately, the room just wasn't steam filled enough, so I headed out after a minute or so. I then hit up the greece/underwater room which had a foot bath with water running down the back, a glowing, milky, colour changing main pool and several rock beds you could lay on while watching fish swimming in an aquarium. This was very relaxing and I almost fell asleep again. I then headed back into the alps area and snagged one of the fake wooden tubs there. They were pretty awesome - like taking a bath in seltzer with little bubbles bubbling up from the bottom. After that, I headed back to the waterfall pool for a bit and a reclining pool nearby as well. Finally, I knew it was almost time to go so I took one last soak in the honey and milk pool since it was awesome before heading to the showers. These were the typical sit on a stool showers and I quickly washed up (which washes off the effects of the water but since I'm allergic to tons of skin crap, it's better for me to just wash off), and washed my hair before going out to get dressed. Once dressed, I headed up to see the amusement park before heading down to see what all the other floors had (a lot). There was a 3hr limit on my ticket (I think) so I made sure to leave before that time ran out.
Spaworld is actually right next to one of the famous views of Osaka (this one) so I stopped briefly to take photos and considered sticking around for dinner since it was nearly 5:30. However, I wanted to get back to Nara so I headed out. I amusingly helped some American tourists find their way around since none of the train signs are in English where you buy your ticket (no idea why but it makes me glad I read Japanese). I think they hit on me because they wanted someone with Japanese skills to help them out. The train for Nara leaves directly from that station which is nice so I was back in Nara by 6:30. I stopped by the convenience store to buy some oden (a kind of soup), a meat bun, and a can of chuhai. Chuhai is a mix of soda and sochu with fruit flavouring, but they often have very low alcohol content (the one I got was 3%) so you can have a nice drink, but not really get drunk unless you're on an empty stomach. (All the hotels I've stayed in have beer vending machines btw). I got carded there for the first time in my life though which was pretty shocking. There was no point to it either since the cashier didn't even do more than see that I had a foreign license and wave me off. I came home to get some work done, but the warm food, chuhai and recovering from the hours spent in insanely hot water and saunas did me in. I watched the latest episode of The Almighty Johnsons (i need more fic for that show, dammit) however that was all I could manage. My eyes were drooping by 10pm and I gave up and went to sleep early.
Today has been a day of rest because it hurts to walk and I have a lot of work to do. I'm still waiting on permissions to get to the artifacts here *fingers crossed* so until then, I have the time to kill. I'm going to get more work done today, and I've promised myself I will go out and get food that isn't okonomiyaki or from a convenience store this evening, but yeah. I took the time this morning to mail out a heavy box of stuff, along with presents for my family which will hopefully lighten up my bag a bit for the final stretch. I plan to go to the Kashihara archaeological institute tomorrow, then bike around Asuka again, hopefully visiting some different kofun this time and buying more site reports if I can find them. Ja ne!
The next day, I headed out of my room in the late morning to let the maids do their work while I sat in a cafe to work on my fulbright ap. In contrast to Korea though, almost no cafe's here in Japan (or at least in the rural areas that make up Nara) offer free wifi. Nor does my hotel offer wifi anywhere but on the first floor. And to top it off, my phone has absolutely no reception so I'm communicating solely by the internet for awhile. In the evening, I headed out for a nice walk towards Nara park. I was intent to head into the park, but I got distracted and veered off down another street before eventually turning around. I was intent on okonomiyaki for dinner, and there was a fairly nice place at the end of the road which leads to the park. I ordered a beef okonomiyaki, but was sad they didn't let you cook it at your table. They controlled how much sauce and mayonnaise you were allowed as well which was a bit of a pain. Overall, I wasn't that impressed, but it was by no means bad. I just have high standards for okonomiyaki. I then headed back to my hotel, stopping to buy an ice cream sandwich along the way.
The next day, I made plans to actually do something. I had only been to the big Todaiji temple and a bunch of smaller temples on the outskirts the last time I was in Nara so I made it my goal to go see the other big shrines I had missed and the national museum. There's been a typhoon lingering around Japan, meaning lots of rain at random times. I knew that there would be rain in the morning so I bought an umbrella at the 100yen shop (yes, Japan's one of the most expensive countries in the world but you can buy an umbrella for a dollar *shrugs*), and wore sandals with no socks. This turned out to be a good plan since it poured buckets. Enough that my little umbrella was overwhelmed by the downpour and I took shelter in a covered shopping are until the worst of it disappeared. I then walked in the pouring rain into Nara park. Every time I see the deer in Nara park, I'm reminded of that weird little Japanese drama (Shika Otoko Aoniyoshi) about the guy who could talk to deer who humiliated him for being a dumbass while they tried to tell him about the apocalypse that was coming (sadly, that is not the weirdest J. drama I've ever watched). Or to put it another way, the deer in Nara park are creepy assholes, though they sure do know how to work the tourists. I just worry that every picture I took of them their eyes are glowing... Plus, I watched one deer chase a guy down the street trying to spear him with its antlers. These deer mean business.
Anyway, deer ranting aside. You can assume they were watching my every move all day. I stopped at a convenience store and bought some sushi and fruit in jelly for lunch. I also bought some pizza chips (or pizza potatoes as they are called on the bag). These are pretty much the most delicious chips in the world with actual cheese melted onto them! They are very bad for your, but oh so tasty *sigh* I headed into the park proper, walking the 1.5km or so to the famous Kasuga Taisha shrine. This shrine is famous for the stone lanterns which line the paths all around the shrine. They only light them up twice a year which makes me sad I didn't figure out where the shrine was last time I was in Nara since I was there during one of those two times (Obon and New Years). However, the rain was still coming down steadily so I watched a shinto ritual at a nearby smaller shrine before heading into the main shrine. I then bought some charms, and a fortune. They sell them being held in the mouths of these adorable porcelain deer which I couldn't resist. I was also pretty happy to get a big luck fortune. In Japan, that's the sort of fortune you keep in your wallet to show your friends so yay! I then headed down a nice path, following one of the many streams through the park, past the entrance to Todaiji and to the Nara National Museum. There didn't seem to be anywhere to eat available (I later learned it was underground) so instead I propped myself against a pillar in front of the museum and watched the carp in the pond and the deer behind it frolic while eating lunch. That done, I headed into the museum, got a student discount ticket and headed in to look at a lot of Buddhist statues on special exhibit. I've taken a class on Buddhist art history before so the displays made a lot more sense than they might have and there were some really famous statues mixed in there. I then wearily made my way through the underground passageway/museum store/cafe to the permanent display area of the museum which mostly had more Buddhist statues though there was inexplicably a display of Shang dynasty onwards bronze vessels. Those were pretty cool to see. My feet were already dragging at this point but there seemed no sense in skipping Todaiji since I was right there. I walked down the long walk way to the temple, bought a ticket to see the temple's treasure hall which is very small and not worth it unless you do what I did and get a combined ticket with seeing the main temple of Todaiji. I first walked around the temple to see the emperor' storehouse but turns out you can't get in unless you make a reservation, so I headed back around and inside to see the Daibutsu (big Buddha) again. I've seen it before but Todaiji was worth seeing twice plus it was fun to get different pictures. I then headed to the right hand area of the temple complex. This houses the Sangatsu Hall which houses one of the pretties images of the many armed Kanon you'll ever see plus a bunch of other old/famous Buddhist statues. No pictures are allowed and it's a bit crazy to be charged $5 to simply go in to look at them, but they really are quite cool and I spent more time studying them since I couldn't take a pic. Next to the hall was another shrine whose name I can't recall but I think it means Second Hall or something. It's up on a hill and has a really good view of the rest of Nara park from its balcony. I headed down the steps then and through the rest of the temple before making my way through the park and back to the center of Nara. My feet were killing me with every step so even though it was a bit early for dinner, I ended up hitting up another okonomiyaki place for dinner. This place was a bit more expensive than the last one, but the okonomiyaki was delicious and they let me chose my toppings so cheese and pork it was. They made it hiroshima style with noodles in it too. I then headed back to the hotel, and took a long soak in the bath to ease my aching feet (since I'd walked several kilometres that day).
The next day it was supposed to rain the whole day due to the typhoon, my feet were still killing me, and the museums are all closed on Mondays. So I was left to find things to do which were inside, didn't require a view or lots of walking and weren't museums. I settled on the Osaka aquarium and Spaworld. Despite what it says online, it's not actually that hard to get to the aquarium. Even the walk from the station isn't bad. The aquarium itself is amazing. The habitats they've set up extend several floors downward so you can see the top of, say, the Aleutian islands, then the middle, then the bottom of the tank. You start on the 8th floor then work your way down. Somewhere on the 6th or 5th floor you start walking in a spiral around a massive tank in the middle which contains two whale sharks who were kind of mesmerizing to watch. I have so many pictures of them and I sat for awhlie just watching. There was also one of the best sea turtle tanks I've ever seen. They turtles were so close up and not mixed with a million other species as they are in most aquariums. Plus, they had a really impressive selection of jellyfish. That and a peaceful atmosphere is pretty much all I ask for in an aquarium so I was pretty content. I also spent far too much in their giftshop. I then headed back to the station, stopping in the mall along the way because it was out of the rain. There I was cleverly lured into a store devoted entirely to One Piece and Ge Ge Ge Kitaro. I had to buy a bit of merchandise from each. I then stopped for lunch. Okonomiyaki osaka style is pretty much a city wide phenomenon so it didn't surprise me to find it in the food court of the mall. I ordered a sort of everything okonoimyaki with cheese on top (you may have noticed by this point that I love okonomiyaki), and a taiyaki (a fish shaped red bean pastry) for desert. I ate that in the food court before heading out to Spaworld.
Spaworld is a crazy 8 floor hotel/onsen/amusement park/restaurant/spa/etc. etc. There are two floors which are just onsen, one Japanese, and one European. Each floor is given over to men or women for the month. I thought I would have to pay a lot to get in but it turns out the internet was wrong and the ticket was only about $10. I headed in, stored my shoes, and brought my bag upstairs. I totally forgot to bring a bathing suit on this trip (they do rent them there but there is no way any of them would fit around my breasts), so I couldn't take advantage of the adorable waterpark on the 8th floor, though it mostly seemed to require inner tubes anyway. It had a great view though which I checked out later. The floor for women this month is the European floor. I changed out of everything, wrapped a bright orange towel around what parts of me it would cover (the towels will cover you if you don't have big breasts... so they never cover me to any extent and I tend to just not bother after I get into the first onsen pool) and headed for the onsen pools and sauna. You walk in through a corridor which sprays you with jets of water, though surprisingly for Japan, you aren't asked to wash off more than that before getting in the onsen. You're greeted then by a replica of the Trevi fountain. So, you know, if you ever wanted to bathe in 105 degree water in front of a Trevi fountain with less horses, you now know where to go to fulfil that dream. I headed around the corner to explore what else was available and it was a lot. There were at least 10 pools in there and maybe more depending on how you count them. And five saunas to go with them. Everything in the building is paid for by the bracelet you wear which you square up when you leave, so you can just sit there naked at tables in the cafe, dipping your feet in sauna water while you eat shaved ice and watch tv. I gave myself a more thorough washing over before I headed into the pools. My first stop was a milk, honey, and royal jelly pool situated in a fake grotto. It had a nice atmosphere and great water though it wasn't comfortable to sit in for long due to the fake rock walls. I then grabbed the first of many drinks of ice cold water from a fountain before hitting the next set of pools. I visited the ice pool, wetting down my towel (which I mostly perch on my head like most Japanese women do) before heading into the cooler dry sauna. I couldn't go in the hotter one due to both the heat and also because it had an open charcoal fire. I lay there until the towel which I used to cover my face had dried out before heading out. I then headed into the Egyptian themed room (each room had a theme though some weren't quite so visible. I think the saunas were in the Alps for example) where there were herbal baths full of rosemary, and lavender and what not. After soaking in them for a bit, I headed into a side door which intrigued me. There, women were splashing liquid mud all over their bodies using giant ladles from a tub of mud. I shrugged and did the same. You washed it off a few minutes later under a shower then headed out. I wandered through the cafe to the outside area where an impressive waterfall cascaded down two sides of one pool. It made a great massage method, and there were seats behind the waterfall. It was so nice to sit back there in between using the waterfall as a massager. In other nearby pools, there were flat beds of rock with rock pillows allowing about two inches of water to set on them. I simply laid down and almost fell asleep though eventually I got too hot since the water was 106 degrees (they tell you the temp of all the pools). I headed out to get more water, then after cooling down near the ice pool again, I headed into the salt sauna. You sit on a mat you take in with you and rub salt into your skin, and heaven forbid you have any cuts on you *L* I stood that for about seven minutes before deciding enough was enough. I showered off then sat in some much cooler tubs which should have had water jets but apparently they no longer work any more. I then went out to get my showering stuff (mostly a comb was all that was needed since the bath products in high end onsen are usually pretty good and include conditioner which, for example, my business hotel does not). I then came back in, hit up the big pool in front of the fountain then hit up the wet sauna which was apparently rose scented. Unfortunately, the room just wasn't steam filled enough, so I headed out after a minute or so. I then hit up the greece/underwater room which had a foot bath with water running down the back, a glowing, milky, colour changing main pool and several rock beds you could lay on while watching fish swimming in an aquarium. This was very relaxing and I almost fell asleep again. I then headed back into the alps area and snagged one of the fake wooden tubs there. They were pretty awesome - like taking a bath in seltzer with little bubbles bubbling up from the bottom. After that, I headed back to the waterfall pool for a bit and a reclining pool nearby as well. Finally, I knew it was almost time to go so I took one last soak in the honey and milk pool since it was awesome before heading to the showers. These were the typical sit on a stool showers and I quickly washed up (which washes off the effects of the water but since I'm allergic to tons of skin crap, it's better for me to just wash off), and washed my hair before going out to get dressed. Once dressed, I headed up to see the amusement park before heading down to see what all the other floors had (a lot). There was a 3hr limit on my ticket (I think) so I made sure to leave before that time ran out.
Spaworld is actually right next to one of the famous views of Osaka (this one) so I stopped briefly to take photos and considered sticking around for dinner since it was nearly 5:30. However, I wanted to get back to Nara so I headed out. I amusingly helped some American tourists find their way around since none of the train signs are in English where you buy your ticket (no idea why but it makes me glad I read Japanese). I think they hit on me because they wanted someone with Japanese skills to help them out. The train for Nara leaves directly from that station which is nice so I was back in Nara by 6:30. I stopped by the convenience store to buy some oden (a kind of soup), a meat bun, and a can of chuhai. Chuhai is a mix of soda and sochu with fruit flavouring, but they often have very low alcohol content (the one I got was 3%) so you can have a nice drink, but not really get drunk unless you're on an empty stomach. (All the hotels I've stayed in have beer vending machines btw). I got carded there for the first time in my life though which was pretty shocking. There was no point to it either since the cashier didn't even do more than see that I had a foreign license and wave me off. I came home to get some work done, but the warm food, chuhai and recovering from the hours spent in insanely hot water and saunas did me in. I watched the latest episode of The Almighty Johnsons (i need more fic for that show, dammit) however that was all I could manage. My eyes were drooping by 10pm and I gave up and went to sleep early.
Today has been a day of rest because it hurts to walk and I have a lot of work to do. I'm still waiting on permissions to get to the artifacts here *fingers crossed* so until then, I have the time to kill. I'm going to get more work done today, and I've promised myself I will go out and get food that isn't okonomiyaki or from a convenience store this evening, but yeah. I took the time this morning to mail out a heavy box of stuff, along with presents for my family which will hopefully lighten up my bag a bit for the final stretch. I plan to go to the Kashihara archaeological institute tomorrow, then bike around Asuka again, hopefully visiting some different kofun this time and buying more site reports if I can find them. Ja ne!
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