Uji and Nara.

Both of the above places, Uji and Nara, I am thoroughly in love with. There is a certain air about the places and people conducive to me wanting to live their with their generosity, as well as beauty of the geography near the river. Uji is also the origin of all the best green tea in the world.We went to the Uji Bridge, where one of the biggest battles in all Japanese history occurre, as well as Byodin Temple. What seems odd to me is that we have gone from one extreme to another by beginning to climb mountains and rough it out, then later switching to museums and parks. Personally, I prefer the earlier of the two.


This is the Uji Bridge in Uji.... haha. Here, the battle of Uji occurred between the Heike and Minamoto clans. During the battle, the bridge was falling apart. Half of the men were drowning in the river; meanwhile, another slaughter occurred through hand-to-hand combat with katanas and other weapons. Pretty epic, huh?

 The below photograph is a pond next to the Byodin Temple with lotus flowers floating everywhere. There were literally hundreds of lotus floating in the lake, along with a ton of koi. Quite beautiful.

 After our adventures in Uji, Troy, Sean, and I went to meet our English friend, Gregory, for an art opening he happened to stumble on. What we didn't know was the dress code. The prints were fantastic, the artist was not judgmental, and overall, everything turned out fine. It was interesting to see a combination between the self-portrait via written word and visual medium combined. He used the journal entries from his ideas in Blue Mud Bay as the background for the print. The words and values created space, ethereal and intelligent.

 Yesterday, we went to Todaiji Temple in Nara. Nara is the first capital of Japan, thus it has some very old and interesting monuments. While it was the capital for a mere 80 years, Nara is one of the most beautiful places we have visited. Below is a picture of a young man named Tomohiro-san, who happened to start talking to us on our walk to Todaiji. He is a native who went to school literally next door to the temple. He was incredibly nice and even showed us the earthquake simulator.....

 This is the deer in the Deer Park before you reach Todaiji. Although they're cute, watch out... their vicious too. They tried to eat Sean and Sara, not just the rice crackers.

 Remember that earthquake simulator that good ol' Tomohiro-san told us about? Well.... Here I am on it. It was pretty interesting because you weren't expecting the jolt of the movement.

 Here is a picture of Sara and me in front of Todaiji temple.

 Lunch was amazing in Nara. We went to a noodle house and bought green tea hand-cut soba noodles. It was amazing that it only cost us 650 yen, or about 8 bucks.

 After all of our travels to search for Enlightenment, we should have just realized that it's easier if you just squeeze through Buddha's nostril in Todaiji for it. If you search the world what's the point? Why not make it easy on yourself! Just kidding. Below is a picture of my pushing myself through Buddha's nostril in Todaiji. Hopefully, I will be enlightened. :D