And I don't say this purely on the basis of Nara's fame: it's huge sprawling historical landmarks. Though I think anyone studying Japanese deserves to see the history of this fascinating culture, most of which seems buried beneath the modern thriving technological mass world. Tokyo towers over the feeble, old, shrines and temples of the historical world.
To be fair, Kyoto is surely visited just as much if not more than Tokyo by tourists, and it has more temples than one can count, but many of these temples are still inlaid in city, concrete piling up over them. It makes the experience impersonal, distant, and to me at least, some of the cohesiveness is greatly reduced. When you're in a beautiful temple and you see a office building pop up over the gate, it makes things odd.
No, I say people need to see Nara because the town just feels... personal.
I think with any trend of a city growing, the people become distant, seperate, individual. Tokyo is a great example of this because of so many people coming from other places to work. Groups disolve into individuals living life.
Nara is as much a place of tourism for Japanese culture as it is a real town, with real communities of individuals living life. And this sense of people actually living life is easily accessible, because the so called touristy areas are just... in housing and life. Across the street from Houryuuji temple, ie. the oldest temple in Japan, built in the 600s, are people's houses! Can you imagine living next to something that's 1300-1400 years old? And actually living there? Like... living!
I suppose my fascination with Japan lies mostly in how I am always distant from the real lives of individuals due to my foreigner status. But when I take a walk down the streets of Nara, I feel that sense of realism, like I have fallen into a very real world filled with interacting groups of people. It's not just a city with people coming in to work, and then leaving. It's not just a place were people go to see stuff. These roles exist too, yes, but in truth Nara is a town where people just do what we're supposed to, they live.
This combination of living among something extremely important is fascinating to me, and personal, and moving.
And even a point of tourism, this place has really cool stuff! Nara is legitimately beautiful. Parks, trees, nature is everywhere, the temples are magnificent, and the architecture of even peoples houses is reminiscent of something old and sacred.
I can't help but be amazing by the intense beauty of this town.
And the food! The food was amazing! Little mom and pop shops that have been open for 40 years. The town just feels PERSONAL.
Two examples of amazing food come to mind. All in one day mind you.
Roost Cafe, about 20 minutes from Houryuuji.
Roost is an amazing cafe that takes old world Japanese cuisine and applies new world twists to it. The interior is ironically decorated with African items (I still don't get this part), but the food is very Japanese. For 10 dollars you get this:
Beautiful
Extremely well presented, 6 little tiny dishes of Okazu (お菜), or side dishes on the left, tofu, potatoes, wakame, stewed onions, among others, and to the right, a salad of tomatoes, garlic, and lettuce, with lightly breaded and fried salmon, with roasted tomato mayonnaise. And rice. And miso soup. And amazing coffee.
For 10 dollars. Just... insane.
Along with that.
THE BEST produce I HAVE EVER TASTED IN MY LIFE. I had the pleasure of walking by a local farm and purchased some strawberries. They were all about the size of your thumb, and they MELT in your mouth, fragrant and ungodly sweet, hints of rose and mint behind the EXPLOSION of strawberry. Just insane! INSANE! And across the street, a temple from the 700s. Like... wtf?
Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, how come Nara just owned you on the trip in terms of food?
It's just an incredible place.
I'm sure I am not fully getting my emotions across through this blog, so I'll just say this. Nara was amazing. It has been hands down one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment