I just got back from the overnight 6th grade graduation trip to Nara prefecture. It was a cool trip, I must say. We rode a nice big, comfy tour bus there and back. They even had tv karaoke system on the bus for the kids.
I got to see a lot more than I did when I first went to Nara last year. I saw the oldest Buddha statue in Japan in the area of Asuka, the 2,000 year-old cradle of Buddhist culture in Japan. The scenic slouds, mountains and trees were a sight, a severe contrast to the drab concrete jungle of Nagoya.
We stayed in ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. I first I had reservations about going on the trip because I wasn't too keen on taking a group bath with the boys and teachers, but the principal really wanted me to go. He paid my expenses and they hooked me up with my own little Western-style bedroom in the inn. It had a decent bed plus a tv. I got to use a private shower as well. Our meals at the ryokan were impressive: we had very traditional Japanese meals with like a thousand courses of hardcore Japanese. Lucky for me, I've grown accustomed to traditional Japanese food, although I could only imagine that as a first-timer in that situation I probably would've barfed at the sight of some of the stuff we ate. There were about 7 teachers on the trip, including myself, and we ate in a separate room from the kids, and even had beer with our dinner, courtesy of the principal. After we put the kids to bed in their big tatami rooms, we had a little "after-party" back in our private room. Sitting around in jinbei, traditional Japanese robes, we had more beer and fresh fruit and just chilled out before we hit the sack.
The next day, we went to Nara Park, a national park full of wild deer. Most of the kids spent the day feeding the animals deer crackers and taking pictures of them. Everyone was free for the day to roam the park as they liked and visit various sites, shrines, and temples. I was surprised at how much freedom the teachers gave the students to basically go anywhwere they wanted and take care of themselves away from home. A small group of students and I witnesed some authentice road rage in Nara Park. A driver with a "handicapped" sign sealed to his windshield, cut off another driver who was a in a black sedan. The man in the sedan honked his horn incessantly, as if it wasn't 10:30 in the morning in a historic national park. Even when the other guy quietly moved his car and drove away, the guy in the sedan blared his horn some more, driving after him, cutting him off at the next pass, then jumping out to approach the other driver's car, screaming obscenities all the while. Meanwhile, the other driver didn't fire back a single word, and eventually the angry got back in his vehicle and sped away. The students were just as surprised at the scene as I was. I asked one of them to explain to me what the guy had said, as I couldn't understand his angry Japanese, but one of the boys suggested that he was probably a yakuza, or mafia member. I just think he was drunk and out of his friggin' wig.
But, just when you think you've seen all the zany things Japan has to offer, there's always more.
