And then we sang songs and baked a cake

I learned (or relearned) two things on my surprisingly wholesome travels this long weekend:
1. I don't much like children
2. Everywhere I like going is usually swarming with kids.
We may have a problem here.

I had another work party on Thursday night, so if any time was a good one for detoxification and atonement, it was this one. I ended up in a "snack" at the end of the night which I was quite pleased about, having always wondered what they were, but the answer was disappointing. They're little bars, always tucked away just out of sight, with the word "SNACK" written on the sign, promising debaucherous things worthy of writing on your blog. Based on my newfound experience, they're kind of depressing places where very, very dressed women sit with you, laugh at all your jokes and carefully watch your glass to see if they can fit any more expensive liquor in it. I can't make it seem any more exciting than that, as sad as it makes me after so long of wondering what was going on inside of those forbidden places. They did have a karaoke machine though, which I guess was fun.

And then, without warning, the wholesome started. It kicked off Saturday morning, which we spent cleaning up the outside of the apartment with the rest of the residents. It was the first time I've used a sickle and hopefully not the last. The cherry blossoms have officially come out now so the whole area is flooded with light pink and white blooms, which is kind of what we based the weekend around as you'll see by the photos.

Sunday, we headed out for our first trip of the weekend, to Nara. It's about 45 minutes out of Osaka, a very strange (I think) place that can't seem to decide whether it's urban or rural. You step out of the train station and all the big city chains are there, but a 10 minute walk later and you're in an endless park full of deer and temples. When I say "full" of deer I mean it - they are everywhere. Little stalls dot the walking trails selling "deer crackers" which will set them on you immediately, although thankfully we seemed to arrive when most of them were full and sleepy. This didn't stop one or two enterprising deer from helping themselves to a lady's picnic lunch and several plastic bags, however. They're absolutely tame and wander around the park being patted on the head, posing for photos with mouths full of crackers and meandering across roads where the cars patiently stop for them. They stand in the river looking up at people with mild interest, wander into temple grounds and are generally waited on hand and foot by the adoring tourists and locals. Extremely confused dogs were being led through the park on walks, desperate to get off their leads but probably not quite sure what to do when it happened.

We took the scenic route up towards Todaiji temple, apparently the largest wooden structure in the world, where the deer who were sick of deer crackers were now crowding around a little trolley with stale bread rolls meant for the fish. We bought one and were instantly the best friends of every beast within a 50m radius. We waded through the legs and horns and made it up toward the temple proper. I'm thoroughly sick of temples now so I'm very discerning about which ones I visit - they must have at least 2 gimmicks. This one fit the bill with a giant (about 50ft tall) statue of Buddha and a massive pillar with a pet-hole sized hole which is supposed to grant longevity to anyone who can fit through it. Lisa joined the queue of kids lining up and managed to wriggle through it, much to everyone's amusement. I would have tried but I was convinced I would hardly be able to fit a leg through. Despite my now questionable lifespan, it was an awesome day and I'm looking forward to going back and doing some stuff that's a bit less touristy. I will have to say hello to my horned friends again though.

Monday was supposed to be my much-anticipated trip to Universal Studios Japan, but I forgot it was the start of school holidays so it was an absolute wash. Having taken the train all the way out there, we braved the line to get in for about 2 hours, discovering that the line was the line for the line for the ticket gate, before it started raining and we decided to abandon. I was quite genuinely crestfallen ("I just want to punch someone in the face," I believe were my exact words) and the only thing that managed to neutralise my misery was all-you-can-eat dim sum. It then mysteriously started snowing in a clear sign that we just weren't supposed to be at USJ that day. I'm just glad we didn't trail all the way up to Tokyo and have the same thing happen at Disneyland, which was the original plan.

Things have a funny way of working out though, and what was supposed to be a little side-trip on Tuesday turned out to be probably the best day of the weekend. After multiple recommendations of Oji Park for viewing the cherry blossoms, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and head over to Oji Zoo, near one of my schools. It was pleasantly quiet (the rest of Japan was probably waiting in the line for USJ) so we got in no problems and sat under the sakura eating lunch and watching the elephants pace around metres away from us. They had a big amusement park thing with a ferris wheel and plenty of festival food including panda-shaped steamed buns, so we spent the whole day wandering around looking at nearly every animal you can think of other than deer. We wandered into the nocturnal bit and managed to make it all the way to the bats before I found my latest fan - a girl of about 3, who turned around, looked at me and started delightedly squealing "eigo no ossan". "Eigo" means "English" and "ossan" is a slightly mean nickname for a middle aged man, like "pops" or "old fart". Lisa, needless to say, was heartily amused, and even after I managed to extract myself we couldn't seem to get away from her - we ran into her again about 3 more times with similar results. I need to write this on my hand in case I ever start thinking about having children. Nevertheless, it was a very nice day and possibly a reminder that I need to start going to places that aren't full of kids.

Like a snack, maybe.