Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

On Sunday, David and I set out for Nara Park (aka Nara-koen). We stopped in Kyoto and went on a quest for some "interesting" toys, suitable for middle-school aged kids. David had a friend in China he wanted to help out. For all souvenirs for sale in Kyoto and department stores and electronics, it was surprisingly difficult to find a real toy store. We eventually did, with some help from a couple Kyoto residents.

In Japan, some dolls wear kimonos, instead of swim suits or sweat suits. How dignified!

I saw this sign about cultural awareness and I felt a part of the effort in my own small way.

Yup. We really went through Kyoto. Here's a license plate to prove it. It just says "Kyoto". In Japan, yellow plates are for economy cars and have cheap registration. White plates are for big, expensive, gas-guzzling cars. They cost much more to register.

After our stop in Kyoto, we did make our way to Nara. It was really neat. In Nara, they have a summer-long festival where they light about 12,500 candles each night throughout the park. Nara park is a big place. It wasn't too eventful. We basicall just wandered around the park and enjoyed the atmosphere. We took a bunch of pictures (perhaps too many). It was really neat to see so many Japanese people actually wearing Kimonos. They were all over the place. Old people, young people, in-between people, women, men, anybody. We even saw a couple of foreigners (separately) wearing Kimonos. A caucasian guy and a caucasian girl both in their twenties. Frankly, I think it's weird to see foreigners wearing something like a kimono which carries so much cultural identity. I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems weird to me.

All of the lights along the edge of this small lake are candles.

Fairly close to the lake is this big pagoda. It took some work to get a decent picture of it in the dark. It's very tall. There's just no good perspective for something like that.

We didn't want to bother these people, but we wanted a picture of all the hoards of people walking around in kimonos. So, we took this from behind.

Trains are always at the center of any trip like this.

Besides the park, Nara is generally a nice place to visit. It's a city, but not a giant city. There's a pleasant strip down the middle. I've been to Nara a couple times before and I enjoy it each time.

There are many interesting English signs in Nara. This is my favorite. It's Fuck'n Cool.

Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

8/8/2004, Trip to Nara with David