Horyuji and Thanksgiving

Yuka and I went to Horyuji in Nara-ken for Thanksgiving. Nara is roughly a three-hour train ride from where I am. We planned ahead and only traveled at peak hours though, so no one bothered us and we were able to get to Nara and back for about six bucks. I love the train system in Japan. It's comfy, you can drink on it, it goes everywhere, its reliable, and its easy to avoid paying for it. I wish they had something like this in America. Only if you could cheat it though. I wonder how you could take planes for free..

We had plans to see these three temples outside of Nara but spent the entire day at the first one. I didn't think it was going to be so big or so interesting. There was an art museum there (taking pictures was forbidden inside... and so was sketching for some reason), and a group of lovely Korean tourists shared the space with us.

The week before we went hiking in Toyota (the company is named for the town) with some of Yuka's friends. We went to an Indian restaurant afterwards and some Nepalese guy working there struck up conversation with me. I thought Nepalese people spoke English but I guess not. I couldn't tell if he was speaking Japanese or English to me when he tried to say something. The Japanese people I was with said the same thing. Completely incomprehensible.

It was a good Thanksgiving even if it was the first one I've spent away from home. I think if I had spent it alone and without Yuka I would gotten pretty bummed out, but we stayed pretty busy and I was in the mood for curry anyway. On the ride home we got tipsy on Chuhi (the wise traveler always packs some) and ate Green Tea Kit Kits which have just become available again. On the train back to Nagoya I had to listen to these Australians having an intellectual debate. They came to the conclusion that personality is more important than looks when dating someone. Brilliant. Coincidentally, they were all ugly.