Nara

Hey all,

Hope all is well back home. This past week was pretty fun, as usual in Japan. Classes went extremely well, had my first tests and no issues with any of them. Spring break is only a week away, which makes it all the more crazy to think how fast my time here is going. This past weekend I traveled to the ancient capital of Nara. In it was the Todaiji temple (which you see above), heralded as the largest wooden building in the world. It also housed the daibutsu, a giant statue of the Buddha. It was a pretty breathtaking experience, check out all of the photos below!
The best part about the trip is that it wasn't purely sightseeing. While we were in the park that housed the temples and pagodas, we were accompanied by a ton of deer. The deer were not only friendly, but they actually would go up to you if you offered them food. Sometimes they bit, but they do not have sharp enough teeth to really hurt you. It was really cool to hang out with deer, considered I've never had the chance to play around with them in America. Check out some of these really cool photos below!


Hope you all enjoyed the photos, I think I'm going to make this a shorter one. I spent the weekend nights hanging out with friends in the city of Osaka. Otherwise, all you need to know is that Japan is treating me really well. The food is excellent (although I'd give up my left arm for a slice of gross, American pizza), the people are nice once you get to know them, and I don't think I've ever had an experience as interesting as this one. I am really enjoying using Japanese in day-to-day conversation. I think my Japanese is improving rapidly, although I'm using this semester to brush up on my skills grammar wise, I feel as if my Kanji recognition and speaking speed has increased significantly. Now most of my Japanese friends prefer to speak to me in Japanese instead of English. I just love using a different language to communicate, it really solidifies all the work I've done. Anyway, I'll leave you all for now, I hope the snow isn't too crazy back home, and for goodness sake, can someone tell me why the Bruins can't beat the Capitals? I may be the only hockey fan in all of Japan, but I'm still keeping tabs on all my teams back east. Ja Matta Minnasan!