About a week or so ago a couple of friends and I headed to Nara, which would end up being my last day trip here in Japan. We started off at Todai-ji, a temple that houses the world's largest bronze Buddha statue, and then spent the afternoon roaming an abandoned theme park.
Pics don't quite do it justice, this thing was massive. Definitely worth a trip to see.
There was a pillar with a hole in it that visitors line up to crawl through. The hole is said to be the same size as the nostril of the bronze Buddha, and if you can fit through it, it's good luck. With some squeezing and pulling, all three of us made it through.
Both Mason and Gillian ended up getting "No Luck," but I pulled my lucky number 9 which ended up being "Best Luck!"
Mason should get a side job as the mascot for the city of Nara.
After a decent walk north of the main touristy area of Nara and a quick climb over a fence clearly intended to keep us out, we made it to Dreamland, a theme park that shut down nearly ten years ago but has been left untouched ever since.
This is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited in Japan.
As I write this, I'm sitting in my room with my bags all packed, half an hour away from my room inspection, an hour away from my cab ride to the airport, and roughly 21 hours away from being back in Chicago. This year has been absolutely nuts. I'm struggling to sum up ten months of living in Japan in a couple paragraphs, so I won't really try to. I'm just so, so glad I came here and made some incredible memories and lifelong friends. I'm sad to leave, but ten months is a long time to be away from home, and I'm super pumped to get back to the states and all the people there that I love and miss. Thanks everyone for following along. Japan, sayonara!
Hi! I am leaving at the end of January for an 11 month contract with USJ to work on a new show in the Wizarding World. I found your blog while doing research and read through the entire thing secretly at my job over the last few days. It calmed my nerves so much to read about your experience! I even took some notes lol. I don't know if you still use this account or will see this but I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you writing this blog and sharing the memories of your time. It's really helped keep me so excited about the journey to come. If you do see this and have any advice now that so many years have past, I'd love to hear! You can find me @templarwright
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