Arrival and Nara Wakakusa Yamayaki festival

This has been an incredible start to this journey. Not more than 24 hours off the plane, and I was lucky enough to make it to Nara for the Wakakusa Yamayaki festival (where an entire mountain gets set on fire because of tradition). 

I arrived at Kansai International Airport at about 4:30PM Friday, January 23rd local time. Tried to fight off jet lag by wandering the airport mall, and even that was overwhelming. It is hard to explain exactly, but I wasn't prepared for just how isolating being the sole American foreigner in sight could feel. I even got pulled out into my own special line going through customs (though I wasn't hassled any). It is a little unnerving, but liberating in a funny sort of way.

Also tried to order ramen for dinner and quickly found, even in an international airport, how little English is worth, (and how much my Japanese needs work). Which was a little bit of a relief, this would be too easy if everyone spoke English. It's a good thing gesturing and patience are both so universal.

Stayed at KIX airport and Hotel Nikko for the night. Exciting stuff. 

Tried some infamous natto at the hotel breakfast
The smell is overpowering, the texture is far too sticky,
but the bad taste is mostly exaggerated

Saturday morning, caught the bus over to the university housing. The staff are all very friendly and accommodating. No sign of a roommate yet. 

My room. Tatami mats, futon, sliding panels, air con and all

At this point, someone had posted about forming a group to travel to Nara to make it to the festival happening that night. That sounded so much more fun than sitting around being jet-lagged, so I decided to join. But me being a new student checking-in (and the rest of that group being primarily 2nd semester returning students) meant I was running behind, and I had to jog the 45 minute walk to the station (not yet really knowing my way around Hirakata City). Made it to the station just before the time they said they would be leaving, but then quickly discovered I didn't know where exactly to meet them and had not way of contacting them. Oh well.

That left me with a bit of a choice. I could walk back to the seminar house (having accomplished nothing) or figure out the 1-1.5 hour train ride to Nara on my own. Oh, and a seminar house 11PM curfew for orientation week meant that if I got on the wrong train in the wrong direction and didn't make it back in time, the gates would close and I would be without a bed for the night.

Piece of cake

Suffice to say I went for it anyways, and am I glad for that! That said, while the Japanese train system is slick, intuitive to foreigners it is not. Luckily, I found some help at the stations buying the tickets (a process I still don't quite understand yet) and had some strangers poke me and say the Japanese equivalent of ("hey, you should really be getting off here to transfer lines..."). I can't say enough for how patient and friendly everyone has been.  

Made it to Nara just before sundown, stumbled on some shrines

The action shot did not turn out well (I was too slow),
but this guy is shouting and pounding mochi with a mallet about the size of his body

Nara has lots of deer that are more or less domesticated. They aren't afraid of you, especially if you are carrying food.

A few seconds after taking this photo, the girl at left started shouting at the deer, then ran off crying
No idea

Everyone is walking in one direction. Guess I should follow

Still learning my camera's settings...
These deer are shaking their heads at me because I'm not sharing my festival food

At the base of the mountain, one of a few popular viewing sites
Looking out reminded me of the view of Boulder from the Flatirons at night

While I was sitting on this hill waiting for the main event to start, an obaasan that was sitting near me struck up a conversation. Her English was charming, and the exchange kind of made my night.

A good mountain burning starts with a good fireworks show
And the Japanese know how to put on a good fireworks show

Neighborhood fire patrol starts the burn
Not sure how this is safe, but somehow it is completely

This is a festival that has been going on for so long that the origins aren't clearly known. The most likely account is it commemorates a fire that started during a feud between two monks from different temples. 

Once the fire got going, you could feel the heat from ~100m away

After the event, the brigade returns (background)

Along the way, I ran into two large groups of foreigners from other exchange programs around Japan. Walking up to the groups and asking where they were from was enough to start up an excited conversation, and I got to join the groups and cruise around Nara for a bit. Having an English conversation with strangers was refreshing.

Managed to make it back to Hirakata and the seminar houses by 10:30PM without getting lost, which meant I wouldn't be out on the streets looking for a bed all night. That was good.

All in all, an incredibly crazy first ~24 hours in Japan. I lost track of just how lucky I was that everything worked out, and I got to see and experience more than I hoped for in coming here. Not a bad way to start things off. 

Now to go find some food...