Stories of Kansai Travel 4

Original post September 2008.

Nara

The next day we went out from hotel early in the morning. Took breakfast at a soba/udon shop in the hotel vicinity where the owners were mid-old couple (at their 60s I suppose) who just worked without chat. No chat chat just stood there after serving us so it's very quiet inside.

We then took the JR-line heading to Nara. The train was for longer route so the seats were different from thosefor local/city quarters with seats located on sides. They were all facing front. The cars were very clean and looked new. But the fare was cheap enough, Y450 one way per person. With not so many passengers to outskirt town like Nara, I hope they make it to cover the service cost. Or maybe they subsidize from the profits they make from Yamanote line in Tokyo that's always packed with passengers.

We arrived at Nara before noon. But it was chilly, a bit chillier than early morning in Bandung. To the right side directly we saw a tourist information corner. That's one thing I like about Japan: everything is well arranged for customer convenience. We asked about sites there and were attended by a nice middle-aged lady who spoke perfect English. She dressed casually so I thought like seeing ibu-ibu pengajian who volunteered for her lovely small town.

Nara is a quiet, clean town. I always love town like this. But usually in small towns nothing much to do. But maybe there's the point: I love having nothing much to do hehe.

The main tourist site is a huge wood building inside the town area. Because it was once a capital of Japan, the area is huge. Hectares. Later after tired walking a day long we realized that we hadn't covered everything there.

Upon entering the town there was a small street. I asked Suhut to take my picture and it proved to be one wise decision I've ever made. Just check :D -->

Despite the street was full of omiyage /souvenir shops, there weren't lots of wisman (international tourists) we encountered except some young caucasians. We were told some festivals were held in Nara, but not in that month of our visit.

On the side of the street there was a mochi-shop, where they made mochi and sold them directly. The making of mochi is quite a traditional thing in Japan, with two persons slam wooden hammers on rice mixed with water and other ingredients to make the adonan. What they made there were green tea mochi with redbean filling. For JPY 130 per each obviously the price was for tourists. Several wisman surrounded and took pictures of the guys punishing the rice, yelling one after another to keep their pounding rhythm. I bought some for lunch.

Mochi itself is a delicious cake shaped like apem but with filling (one I like the most with strawberry inside, very juicy). Unlike apem though, it has very soft texture (well, anything slammed in that way must be very soft). Japanese family make them at new year's celebration when members of family gather. Sadly some old people die on that occasion every year because they eat mochi without proper chewing and get choked. So better not eat it when you don't have teeth.

On outside wall of the shop hung two proud framed pictures of theirs, posing together with Dewi Sukarno a.k.a Madame Syuga. Hmm not only in Serdang Bedagai the restaurants display their picture with Bapak Pejabat and celebrities visiting their places I thought.

Sweet Potatoe a.k.a Ubi Rambat and Todaiji Temple

Further into the area, we were welcomed by friendly deers that ate papers (yes they ate papers, I saw it). Perhaps they were a bit desperate from nothing to eat so they did that. Around Todaiji temple they sniffed tourists for food. Later some of them followed me for my sweet potato so I had to eat them (the potato not the deers) all at once. Sorry deers, Pardugem was hungry too that day.


Previously on the way to the temple we passed across a cart selling sweet potato (ubi jalar/ ubi rambat). I had a thing of this ubi rambat because I saw once in Tokyo they sold it Y500 (Rp 42k) for A SLICE. For the price 10 kgs or one plastic bag of it in Tokyo, if you go to traditional markets in Medan instead with your money, you can bring home ALL THE SWEET POTATO AS WELL AS THE SELLER. This one in Nara was bigger like cassava root (ketela), and the tag hanging there read Y200/100. I assumed it must be Y200 one and Y100 a slice. So I asked the lady seller one (with my 10-word Japanese skill) and asked to cut it into two.

She chopped it in Mary Marvel's speed and put each half in a paper wrap. Handed them down to us and said kuhakyu en. Whaaat??!! that's 900 yen (around Rp 75k). I wanted to protest but I could not say it in Japanese, and she's the one who held the knife LOL. I looked the tag again then it must read Y 200/100 grams. Why the hell didn't she write down the grams??!

I shouldn't have easily judged small towns have much cheaper prices. Suhut grinned happily eating his portion of ubi rambat while I grumbled wishing the lady could speak English.

After an hour or so we went to main tourist destination in the area, the Todaiji temple. It's a HUGE building of 8th century, house of a colossal Buddha statue inside. The info said it's _the largest wooden structure in the world_. I was impressed by the size of it. Given the technology they had on those days (c. 700s), it was amazing. Perhaps when the Japanese in Nara built the Todaiji temple and the Javanese in Magelang crafted Borobudur, my ancestors in Tapanuli were still hunting rabbits and boars for their group supper.


The area around the temple did resemble residence area for rulers. There were beautiful traditional big Japanese houses, large and enchanting gardens, and they located far each one another. It's that large that when we headed back to the town center, it was almost dusk.