Tuesday, April 8th
Today we headed off to Nara, which is famous for all the deer roaming thru their various parks. And they weren't kidding. There were a ton of them everywhere (mainly right next to the small stalls that sold deer food -_^) We first headed to Todai-ji temple which had a large buddha vairocana (statue) and several other smaller statues inside the same building as well. After that, we headed to the Nigatsu-do subtemple. It was a bit of a ways up a hill, so it had a nice view of Nara city. The rain kept starting and stopping the whole day so it was a bit of a pain (especially the one point where it just started pouring. We had to hide under the shelter of one of the bathrooms in the park for about 5 or 10 minutes till it stopped). After Nigatsu-do, we checked out the Kasuga grand shrine and Kofuku-ji temple (with it's 5-story pagoda). That might've been a bit neater if it didn't have all the construction stuff around it. (kinda ruins the effect ne? ^_^). We then bought some of the deer crackers and fed the deers for a little bit. That was neat. They were really eager to get at the food and kept rubbing against my leg. At least they didn't have horns. ^_^ But, that was about everything we wanted to see in Nara, so we headed back to Kyoto. When we got back, we had a little bit of time to waste, so I was able to go to the Hello Project store. I bought a bunch of stuff (ranging from posters, to photo books to just other stuff.). After that, we were able to meet up with Ume, his wife Satsuki (?), Akira, and another girl from Nintendo named Risa. Akira had to go
to his English class (which was in Kyoto station), so we headed off to dinner at this Italian place (which was also in Kyoto station). It was really good, though I'm not sure I'm big on pizza with an egg in the middle of it. (Sorry Ume. ^_^) Akira was able to meet up after his class, and we headed off to Starbucks afterwards to hang out a little bit more and just talk. But, finally it was time to part ways (since the Starbucks closed). So, we basically said our goodbyes at that point. I'm really glad that I got to meet everybody, and I hope to be able to see them again sometime. They all were really cool to hang out with. Maybe next time Akira comes to Austin on business, I'll have to drive down to hang out with him. And finally, that night, I was able to find an internet cafe. So, I sent off some emails, uploaded a few pictures and then went to bed. It was another long day....