Nara is famous for its “bowing deer”, a nod to the Shinto belief that these ruminants are sacred messengers of the gods. After a struggle bus morning trying to get out and stay out of bed, I joined Nancy for a drizzly walk to Nara Park – after a stop at Starbucks, of course. This will become important shortly.

We had received a brief introduction to these nationally protected sika deer in Hiroshima, and it is clear that they are (1) used to humans and (2) good at getting their way. It wasn’t long into our walk before we began sighting signs warning of potentially aggressive deer behavior. Neither of us were willing to shuck out cash for the biscuits marketed to evoke the famed bows from the deer, but the bucks still put on a head-banging show with their conditioned request for hand-feeding.

Japan is touted as one of the cleanest countries in the world. One of the contributing factors to this is the cultural expectation that rubbish is to be disposed of at home. There are few trash cans available publicly (almost none in Tokyo), so we just learned to carry our wrappers and takeaway containers for the day. Because of this, Nancy’s coffee cup was dangling from her hand as she recorded a video message of the deer to share with friends back home. An opportunistic doe leapt at the opportunity to snack on something other than bowing biscuits, and my attention was quickly brought into this whole scene by Nancy’s guttural and repeated “No no no no!”. I stood, transfixed, as Nancy grabbed what portions of the plastic cup lid were visible outside of the cud-chewer’s molars and wrestled the prize away with a series of theatrical plastic crinkling noises. I learned that I’m not much help in a deer attack.

We strolled into the primeval forest, rapidly reaching our fill of shrines & stone lanterns, herds of deer & troves of tourists. Reaching my sensory fill generally indicates that my stomach is on empty, so we meandered back to the shopping district to find a ramen shop. Nancy also found another mont blanc dessert; we both touted much improved moods (or, perhaps, my improved mood made me see everyone around me as happier. Yes. Likely.).

The rest of our afternoon in Nara was spent napping and eating (curry for supper!). That evening in the hotel, we flipped through the channels and encountered a program simply panning through a twilight scene of ornate pavilions and booths. With a bit of research, we realized this was a live feed of the World Exposition – think Paris in 1889 and the installation of a monster entrance arch that became known as the Eiffel Tower – a world fair being held in Osaka this summer. Osaka is a manageable day trip from Nara.
Fed up with deer and drizzle, we nabbed last-minute tickets after 45 minutes in an online queue.

The next morning we traveled an hour by train, stashed our luggage at the hotel in Osaka, and hopped on the subway to the newly constructed Yumeshima station – a dead-end stop at the edge of the sea. We entered the fairgrounds and were blown away by the pavilions and art installations, the shows and displays, as well as the crowd management, trash receptacles, and bathroom facilities. What we anticipated would be two hours of contented strolling morphed into nine hours of gawking at various nations’ displays of their best side. We climbed the Great Ring – the largest wooden architectural structure in the world – for a view of sunset and the waterworks show at dusk. With just a couple hours left in the day, we decided to collect stamps for the commemorative passport book, literally running from country to country to fill our passports. The clock struck 10:00 and we were ushered from the grounds and herded back into the Yumeshima subway station with thousands of other expo-goers. Even that wasn’t enough to squash my excellent review of the day!

Our final day in Japan brought us to Osaka Station for more luggage storage with an overdose of sensory stimulation, then a shopping trip for more stationery and pens. I agonized over the pen selection for much too long (the area hosting the pen displays was as big as the entire sales floor of my childhood cheese store), finally choosing my pen gifts… and then returning to the counter to buy one for myself. The Japanese really know how to make office supplies, and my family has had more than one office supply party.

We caught the evening coach bus from Osaka station to the KIX airport, where I picked up my shipped luggage and recombobulated in the packing area. Nancy and I passed through security with a small amount of time to spare before boarding, so we went in search of a store to use the last of our yen. We were successful in emptying our pockets, but more so than desired: a panicked realization that boarding documents had been left on a terminal shuttle had hearts racing (at least my heart; Nancy is cool as a cucumber) for an interminable 5 minutes during the search. I started breathing again once we were in our seats on the flight to Taipei. Sixteen hours later, we were in LAX, and my heart rate rose again as the shuttle bus driver berated me for asking if her bus would bring me to the rental car desk (it would, but how dare I ask?). I miss Japan already…