Stephan Piriwe
My third day
I woke up early and went to Namba station where I took the train to Nara (not to be confused with Narnia).
Nara is a city in the outskirt of Osaka and what’s more there is a beautiful park (National Heritage) with many temples and other monuments.
Just as I got into the park I saw the first deers. A huge population of deers lives in this park and they aren’t shy at all. So while I fed them with deer-crackers I could pet them. Afterwards, I moved on to a temple where I had a temple sign drawn by a monk.
Close to the temple, there was a pond with some turtles having a sun bath. Actually it was pretty nice weather and quite hot. I then laid down in the park and enjoyed the calm atmosphere. You could tell that I like being surrounded by nature. After having a rest, I followed a path until a Japanise garden appeared. The garden seemd to be well-maintained and there was a small bridge in front of a small waterfall. Blue-white flowers covered the sides of the path. An eldery Japanese approached me and we had a nice chat. He said that he had been to Europe (Czechoslowakia) 40 years ago. Then I climbed up the “Three Hills”. They were covered with grass and I passed many deers again. Reaching the top of the highest hill I had a beautiful scenery in front of me. I could see the City of Nara in the Valley and the fresh-looking green hills around.
At the top I had a short nap again and then carried on back to the train station. While I was walking towards the station I saw a group of pupils. Three boys and two girls. The all wore the typical school uniform and glanced at me. As I moved closer the tallest boy came up and started talking in English with the help of a booklet.
Hi Sir, may I ask you a question?
I stopped and he kept talking to me. They were junior high school students and were supposed to ask foreigners English phrases in order to practice their language skills. Actually, just the tallest kept asking while the others eagerly wrote down my response. After that we took a picture together and even the teacher posed with me.
Finally I arrived in the City of Nara and took a short walk where I stumpled upon a currency exchange. There I could exchange my far too much money.
Seb, my host invited me for a dinner in Osaka, where we (Seb, Eduardo, Ky and I) headed for a Japanese restaurant. We ate omelettes, each of which covered with vegetables, Kimchi or sausages. Believe it or not, that’s typical of Japanese cuisine. Besides, you are allowed to smoke in restaurants but you are not approved of smoking outside.
Upside down.
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