With such a large group on our Japan trip 2019, there were times when the group split and many different adventures were had. A number of these happened on Wednesday and Thursday and quite a few of them will have their own posts coming. There were so many experiences on the trip that it was impossible for everyone to do everything. Needless to say, that has left many of us wanting more :-). The below post is the post of our final day of the trip for the main travelling party and details our trip to Nara.
Friday 19th April
We went to Nara and met up with Sensei Reg Sakamoto. Today he was our guide around Nara. Nara is famous for a few things, the first of which were the bowing deer. The deer must have copied the bowing behaviour from the monks, and the monks must have been amused by this and fed the deer as a reward, thus the deer have learned to bow in response to food. (There’s also the legend of the god Takemikazuchi arriving in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital of Heijō-kyō, and the deer since being regarded as heavenly animals.)
Martin Stevens found the deer will do other things for food, such as sneak around behind someone and bite their bum. Oh deer (sorry!)
As well as the deer, Nara is famous for being a capital of Japan before Kyoto. Most impressive was the third thing for which Nara is famous, the temple of Todai-ji, until recently the largest free-standing wooden structure in the world, a record it held for most of the thousand or more years since its construction. Inside, a 52 foot high bronze Buddha. It seemed wherever we went there was something to make us go “wow, just wow.”
How do you follow that? By walking up to the shrine of Kasuga-taisha. One of the gods enshrined here is Futsunushi no mikoto, god of martial arts.
A curry for lunch, and a beer (of course) then the trains back, and a chance to do more shopping.
In the evening, some of us, Sensei Riley included, went for a meal at a restaurant near Sensei’s hotel. The restaurant served food on sticks, and seemed to be the best chance at seating our large group. (Japan just doesn’t seem to cater for large groups.) The maitre’d asked us to wait, and eventually beckoned us into the restaurant. There were lots of tables, for twos and for fours, so where were they going to seat us?
They took us down a flight of stairs and along a corridor, all very ominous. Our host slid aside a screen, and invited us into a room with a low table, seating in the Japanese style, kneeling or cross-legged, at a table which would easily accommodate all of us. Food was ordered, including food on sticks (chicken, prawns, other things), and pitchers of beer.
Gary joined us, having been out shopping, and as part of the celebrations presented Martin Stevens with a Tozando shirt as thanks for all his efforts arranging transport and organising our trips around Kyoto. Jane and John joined us too, a most fitting final evening meal in Japan.
After that there was only one thing we could do, something we had to do; final drinks in “Sensei’s secret bar.” And, apart from the journey to Osaka airport and the journey home, that brought us to the end of our trip to Japan. Between us we had taken thousands of photographs, walked countless miles, and brought home memories to treasure.
The White Rose Aikikai went to Japan as part of its 40th anniversary, and we trained in the oldest Budo hall in Japan, and visited the temple of the god of martial arts, and I can say; “I was there.”
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Note: The main blog posts for the trip have been written by Simon Stanton, 4th Dan. Those of us on the trip would like to thank him for taking the time to put many of memories and experiences into words, and doing so while the memories are still fresh. It was a brilliant trip that we don’t want to forget (as can be said for so many of the ones we have as an association) and Simon has helped that with these posts.
