Deep Fry and Deer Swarms
The night after sushi Patrick and Joe stayed out pretty late but I decided I wanted to go back. Waking up super late in the day was killing me and I was falling behind in my writing. So today, the 22nd of June, I woke up at a decent hour and headed downstairs to get some writing done. It’s hard to backtrack a week plus when were experiencing so much at one time. I hate for a single memory to be lost. I brainstormed with the others and we all corroborated a story on some notes that I would be able to embellish on later and that’s saved me a lot of headache.
After I had made some headway on trying to get everything done and edited some videos the other guys were up and around. We would be meeting Manami and Nana later so we had some time to kill. So we walked around Umeda station and hit up convenient stores for some food and drinks. That’s the number one reason why were making it by in Japan without spending so much money because we moved from one conveinent store to the next. Believe it or not the food is pretty good. I’m still not sick of all the little rice triangles and coffee in a can.
We met up with the other two later in the evening and they brought us to a department store and we headed to the to level to where all the restaurants were at. I was a little thrown off at first because I didn’t want to be eating at a mall but the restaurants up top were actually pretty nice. But pretty expensive. Our tastes did not match Manami and Nana’s expensive taste. But I’m sure daddy is paying for all of it when I’m watching my bank account drop.
The place we ended up deciding on was unique. I’m not sure what it was called but basically it was a deep fry buffet. We got to pick out what we wanted to have fried and brought it back on a plate to our table. The waiter brought us breading and batter. We put the batter on the outside of the meat, cheese, fruit or whatever we wanted to fry, and then roll it around in the breadcrumbs and drop it in the fryer that is in the center of the table.
I’m positive it’s not healthy but after all the rice and fish I’ve been having lately I thought we all could afford a little fried treats and we all enjoyed it. We had tuna, pork, beef, shrimp, bacon, cheese, corn, lotus root, pineapple, all deep fried ourselves. Multiply that with 90 minutes of all you can drink beer it’s a winning combination.
Eventually we all were full, fat, and happy and it was getting later so Nana had to go back home in Kyoto so we said our goodbyes and she left. Manami still wanted to hang out so we went to a weirdly popular bar chain that’s all over in Japan called Hub. This is an English pub that served pints or drinks and had bar food for sale too. Lots of standing room and was normally pretty packed. We met lots of young Japanese people who have been there since work let out still in their suits and ties hanging out with all the other people they work with. Everytime one of them struck up conversation with us they were always excited to hear we were from the US.
I feel like I’ve been writing a lot about drinking and bars but its easy to forget that the US doesn’t have nearly the drinking culture that Koreans and Japanese do. They work all day at max capacity and then they go out all night at max capacity. It’s definitely a lot more of a normal thing out here. You could get a beer at any restaurant or just buy it at the convenience store. Japan’s DUI standards are .01 and if you’re caught over that its jail time and serious fines. They just do it with more responsibility then we do I believe in the US. There are no fights that I’ve seen. Just loud, weird Japanese people not at work and happy about it. Combine that with their mass transit system, it’s safer and they can still make it home and get to work the next day.
Manami had to catch the train before they stopped running at 12 so we said goodbye to her as well. Then it was just the three of us. We were trying to avoid the club Pure because we heard mixed reviews and its expensive. But we couldn’t find anything else to go so we checked it out.
It wasn’t impressive at all after we paid the high cover. They played a lot of music that was popular like 5-10 years ago, lots of foreigners that were pretending that they were in their element and a lot of the same as far as clubs go. Bumping into each other waiting for drinks, nasty bathrooms. I wasn’t having much fun until Patrick and I went around and pretended we were making a documentary with my camera and a microphone we found. We got everyone to sing along in the microphone and they thought it was gonna be in the video. We even had the DJs sing into it. It was hilarious.
We got back pretty early in the morning and overall it was a good time but sometimes we have to make our own fun.
Naturally getting back in the late morning time, we slept most of Sunday away. I woke up and tried to squeeze in as much writing as I could before the others came around. At this point I believe I had finished writing about Korea and was almost caught up.
Today we wanted to go to Nara but we were losing daylight fast. It wasn’t too far away and our JR pass covered it so we figured it wouldn’t hurt to go and miss out on the daylight. So far some of the temples and parks we’ve seen at night have been better then what they are during the day. They look brilliant all lit up.
We arrived and it was pretty much night time. We looked at maps that were on display to figure out where to go and noticed they were having Oktoberfest right in the middle of the park. We walked through it and saw a huge tent with tables, seats and a stage where a polka band or whatever they’re called mightve played if we showed up earlier. It was extra goofy seeing Japanese people dressed up like the stereotypical German beer makers. The area still had a lot of people enjoying their craft German beers, something Japan does not have any selection of. I bought a pint and we got some hotdogs they gave to us with a knife and fork to eat. So close, Japan. The hot dogs where good although I did not eat with a fork like the other Japanese people were doing.
We finished up there and headed to the park. There was a warning sign about the deer that are numerous inside park. From what we read on the sign, and on the Internet, is that the deer here act almost like a nuisance. They’re protected here because legend has it that one of the ancient gods rode a white deer here from heaven and that the normal deer are the protectors of this divine location. So the deer live here unchecked.
Up on the path we were following, a group of 30-40 kids lighting candles to form pictures off to the side in the grass. I gave Joe my camera and he was going to get up on the ladder nearby to get a better look but as soon as he got close one of the students moved the ladder and Joe was chasing after. I got Joe’s attention and threw him up on my shoulders to get some shots. Unfortunately at the same time I did that, they started blowing all of them out so I’m not sure what we got.
We walked by some temples and walked down to a pond with a gazebo out in the middle. It was so nicely lit up with spotlights that were on the shore. We ruined some couples happy moments as we came out there to join them while we were in mid conversation, I’m sure of it.
Once we had almost made a lap around the ponds, we came up to the second largest pagoda in Japan. I can’t remember now but I believe it’s over 700 years old and it has 5 tiers of roofing stacked into of each other. Like a layered cake. I’m glad we saw it at night all lit up.
At this point, we still haven’t seen any of these plentiful and annoying deer yet. But when Patrick spotted one all he did was stop us and say “oh shit." Joe and I were looking around trying to figure out what he was talking about when we met eyes with three deer laying next to a try right alongside the path. They looked concerned probably because we looked so scared.
As we made our way out of the park, more and more deer came and showed their faces. They all just watched us as we passed by showing no sign of fear or moving away from us which was a little intimidating. We just walked passed them without causing any fuss and headed to the train station.
We did as much as we could in the time we had, caught the train back and called it a night.