NARA
Mood:  chatty
Sunday, June 20th
Sunday is our first touristy day. I am so happy to be taking Bill and Nola to Nara. I've been waiting for a chance to explore this most beautiful and ancient site with some special friends. Even a more wonderful treat is that my friends Miki and Atsuo met us in Osaka. It's only about a 40-minute train ride from Osaka (it looks farther on the map!).

When we arrived in Nara we headed over to the tourist information booth to get some maps. While waiting in line i noticed a tall young man wearing a Mexico t-shirt making arrangements for an English language guide. They have English-speaking volunteers who are on call and come when needed. After a very short conversation we'd invited him to join us, and he managed to cancel his guide before she'd left her home.

We spent an enjoyable day visiting different temples and shrines and viewing the great Daibutsu and other artwork. I would have never chosen to go into the art museum, but i'm glad that we visited. We learned a lot about the culture and history by studying some of the displays. It was very hot, but it sure beats the rain. The typhoon will be heading our way shortly, so we feel like we are living on borrowed time. In fact by the end of the afternoon we did experience a few raindrops but they were rather welcome for their cooling effect.

The famous deer of Nara are just like begging puppies with antlers. We got our fair share of tourist photos of these gentle, beautiful creatures. Another famous site seen in Nara is the human pulled rickshaw. Boy, are these guys and girls in shape. They must have legs of steel. I just couldn't bring myself to have them pull my heavy body around although when they were jogging along with two people in the cart it seemed effortless.

Now a little bit about our new found friend. I love that we keep meeting such interesting people from around the world. Vladamiro is from Mexico City. He is a college student majoring in math and is the Champion Go player in his country. JAL airlines flew him here to compete in an international Go championship just outside of Tokyo. Wow, we are spending the day with a world famous Go player! Vladamiro was very humble telling us that there are only 50 Go players in Mexico, but still i think that he must be pretty good to earn this trip.

Go is a traditional Japanese game whose history stretches back about 3,000 years. It is a territorial game played with black and white stones. There are Go parlors all over Japan, and it seems especially popular with retired men. There is lots of strategy and it takes years to become even somewhat proficient at the game. If you want to know more about it check out this website.
GO Game

By the way, this morning we ran into a Frenchman on a fully loaded bicycle. He was on a trip around the world and had been traveling for over 5 years. Interesting character.

Most funny memory for today:
I bought some fish food to feed the Koi carp this afternoon. The food feels like Styrofoam and is in the shape of a small loaf of French bread. I passed it out to everyone and as we were strolling towards the pond Bill took a big bite out of his. The shocked looks had to be seen. I guess he missed the whole idea of feeding the fish or maybe he was just hungry!



Saturday, June 19th
It's nice to sleep in and get up when we feel like getting up. Nola decides to stay in the apartment and do some writing and journaling. Bill and i are off for a run along the Shyukugawa River. I take Bill all the way to the ocean and, without realizing it, we end up running about 7 miles! It's warm and humid and Bill is a bit amazed at how much water he's drinking. Spokane has been cold and this humid weather really makes you sweat. We take a cool-down walk through the Sports Complex by my apartment, and Bill gets to see an adult baseball team playing a practice game with a rubber ball. Weird. When we return, Nola is so relaxed and easy going so we sit and each have our own type of breakfast munchies. Then we are off on the bikes - Nola, on my 3-speed, Bill on Dave's 3-speed and i on my new Bike Friday. It's nice that Dave (an ALT downstairs) and i have both purchased fold-up bikes so there are extra bikes for guests. We basically circled the town. Nishinomiya is bordered by hills in the north, and my apartment is at the base of these. We rode to the Mukogawa River which is the eastern border and followed a bicycle trail to the ocean which is the southern border. We wove our way through back streets to Koshien Stadium because i wanted to show Bill the Hanshin Tigers baseball stadium (he's a baseball fan, of course). We managed to find a Hanshin shop open so that Bill could get a few baseball souvenirs. A trip to Daiei (similar to our Macy's or Nordstrom's) gave them a feel for the stores here. We were able to sample some Japanese treats to give us a bit of energy for the rest of the ride on home. We rode west till we hit the Shyukugawa again which is the western border of Nishinomiya and then up river and back to my apartment. Bill and Nola voted for another stop at the noodle shop. They are very easy to please.

Friday, June 18th
My friends, Nola and Bill, arrived from Spokane via Tokyo on the Shinkansen Friday afternoon. Nola called me at school on my cell phone, and i was able to leave early and jet down to the train station on my bike in a flash. They were lounging at the McDonald's looking as if we were still just meeting in Spokane except for the fact that they had a couple of suitcases! We walked to a waiting taxi and i gave the driver my address. I arrived at my apartment by bike just a few minutes behind them. We were all too tired to do much except walk a block to the noodle shop and enjoy catching up on about 10 months of gossip and stories. This is going to be a fun time for me, and i hope that they will enjoy seeing the sights with me. There's a rumor of a typhoon heading our way on Monday, but we are going to stick with my original plan to take it easy to give them a rest on Saturday and begin the real sightseeing on Sunday. It's risky, we could be deluged with rain for days if a serious typhoon hits.