I still don't know how to say goodbye in Japanese

I'm going to try to wrap up the Japan posts before I get any further behind.

Little known fact: a herd of wild deer have overrun the ancient city of Nara and currently control its inhabitants. It's seriously the craziest thing I have ever seen. The deer are everywhere and they are completely unafraid of people. Street vendors sell deer biscuits and the deer literally chase people to get them. Other than the wild deer invasion, Nara was another day of temples and pagodas. As ready as we were to leave Tokyo earlier in the week, we were equally ready to return to a city after our days of hiking through temples. This computer is uploading pictures at a glacial pace so I can't post too many photos of Nara, but it was lovely. We'll eventually get all these pictures up.

After a day in Nara we took a quick train to Osaka-- the bustling Kansai counterpart to Tokyo. With only one night left in Japan, our singular objective was to karaoke. Clare's inner rock star required it. As with all things we attempted in Japan, it was not as easy as we originally expected. We started off in Dotombori, a wild neighborhood of endless flashing lights. Apparently the secret to popularity in Osaka is having the biggest hair possible. This applies to both men and women. Check out the studs next to Clare in that picture.

So wandering through Dotombori we decided that for our last night in Japan we should have sushi. Simple enough, there are resturants everywhere. Curiously, there are also scantily clad women everywhere, lining the streets outside the restaurants. This did not set off any alarms for us because, quite frankly, we are a little oblivious and we were on a mission for sushi. We walked into a little sushi place with no English menu, emboldened by our week in Japan to just point at the fish to order. Terrible idea. After ordering two glasses of wine, the hostess came over with a "menu" that indicated the sushi was the equivalent of $99. We promptly stood up and backed out, bowing and muttering "see mah sen" over and over. In retrospect it should have been obvious, but we were in the red light district, where sushi dinner comes with evening accompaniment. Oops. We quickly turned the corner and saw an English pub that seemed safe and ran inside. Our last meal in Japan was a tuna salad sandwich and french fries, which we ate with chopsticks. Hardly authentic, but better than accidentally hiring a Japanese prostitute. We did eventually find our way to some fantastic karaoke where we sung some of the most authentic country music Japan has ever heard in to the wee hours of the morning. Sing karaoke, check. Don't hire hookers, check. A successful evening.

We killed our last afternoon in Osaka at a baseball game--the Osaka Buffalos versus the Tokyo Sparrows. As with all of our efforts to participate in Japanese culture, we failed rather epically. Through a series of gestures, we were able purchase tickets at the gate, and they turned out to be fantastic seats. The Japanese are fanatical about their baseball. There were at least two bands in the audience and the crowd would burst into clapping and singing and waving flags. Ever the baseball enthusiast, Clare wanted to buy a noise-maker to support the Osaka Buffalos. It was only when we returned to our seats and started cheering for the home team that we noticed everyone around us was wearing Sparrows shirts and cheering for the other side. Apparently in Japan the stadium is divided in two based on who you are supporting. Clare had to hide her little clapper lest we get mauled. "A" for effort, "C" for execution.

Not ready to leave Japan without one more epic failure, we had a terrifying scramble at the airport when we learned upon checking in that we were supposed to get a visa for Australia. Who knew? Fortunately we were able to do it online at the airport, but it involved some airport sprinting not unlike the oft-told tale of the Frankfurt airport from the first tour. Basically we will always be the girls running through the airport with giant backpacks, pounding at the doors as the gates close and collapsing into our seats at the very last moment. But all is well that ends well and we made it to Australia relatively unscathed.

Byron Bay in the next episode!!