Episode 5: “Opportunity”: October 1-14

Welcome to the fifth entry! A lot has happened in the past two weeks -- especially last week, including exams and taking lots of ventures to different places. I’ll be talking about them in this entry.

How could I come to Japan and not talk about anime? There just so happened to be an expo that opened on the 9th in the Daimaru Umeda (which ends on the 28th) and the 10th just so happened to be a school holiday! This expo was for an anime called Bocchi the Rock, which I recently completed before coming to Japan. I won’t give out any spoilers, but this was probably one of my favorite animes that I’ve ever watched, and to coincidentally come at a time where an expo was taking place was even more fun.

October 13, Nara Park

Did you think there was ever a place where you could pet and feed deer? I didn’t think so... I’m assuming all of my fellow Mississippians are very surprised. In fact, there’s an entire park! In Nara, an hour train ride east of Momoyama, there are over a thousand acres of land where deer roam around where you can feed small crackers called 鹿せんべい (shika senbei) for ¥200 (around $1.34). What’s also cool is that they bow to you before taking the cracker. There are hundreds of deer walking, being fed, and napping all over the place; it’s like a deer heaven! The manholes even have deer on them. That previous statement about deer heaven is also partly true. In Japan, deer are sacred animals, as they are messengers to the gods. In saying that, there are many temples in Nara Park, of which I went to the Toudaiji temple. In here, there’s a large Buddha statue as you walk in, and in front of it there’s a box where you toss in a 5 or 10 yen coin and pray. As you walk around, you can see different major figures in Buddhism and Japanese history. Towards the end, as you walk out, you could get a free stamp (or ハンコ hanko as they’re called here) to prove that you were there! You all can ask me about it when I get back and I’m more than happy to show you. There were also lots and lots of different shops, one of which was a katana shop! I can proudly now say that I’ve held a katana! After we left, we went to a small district that’s famous for its food! There’s actually a world-famous maker of mochi on this street, and tons of people crowd around the shop to watch him make it! When you get the chance, look up the name ‘Nakatani Mitsuo’.

My host mother’s father is a Japanese classical musician, and I went to see a concert in Hiragata on Monday since it was a national holiday (Sports Day, to commemorate the opening of the Summer Olympics in Tōkyō in 1964). I’m sure it surprises people that it was okay to sleep during these performances. In America, I’m pretty sure it’s considered rude to not pay attention to concerts in general. However, this type of music is very relaxing, so it’s perfectly fine to rest! It actually put many people to sleep along with myself. 

That’s all for this week! The second month is almost over, and I’m excited to share more with you all. As always, thank you so much for reading.