The Unexpected.

Sometimes life surprises you. Sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ones. And maybe they won't be the most memorable moments or maybe they'll change who you are. But it's the little things that keep it interesting. They keep you on your toes, force you to react, make you suddenly laugh or cry or scream. These unexpected moments can be magical or maddening, have you falling in love or wanting to jump off a building. You know, life stuff.

These are the pictures that mean the most to me from this trip. Sure, they aren't what I went to Japan to find. They aren't of breathtaking gardens or impressive temples or massive Buddha statues. It's not the stuff you're going to find in Lonely Planet. But when you travel or have an epic night out with your friends or even take the bus to work, sometimes something happens that makes the experience wonderful and unique.

So, this was the first thing I saw after stepping off the train to get to Osaka City. I had always heard that getting groped on the metro was a problem in Japan, but I didn't realize it was severe enough to need women only cars. Nice first impression.

Talking to people about the deer in Nara, they said that the animals get obscenely vicious if you stop feeding them. But it's one of those things that you don't really comprehend until you experience it for yourself. And as you can imagine, I almost got my dress and a couple fingers eaten off. This guy ended up not being an asshole so we bro'd out.

This is a giant rope. It's made of hair. I shit you not. Followers of the Higashi Honganji temple donated their hair to make ropes to use during the time of the temples construction... in 1895. So, not only is this giant rope made entirely out of human hair, it's over a hundred years old. Even the historical stuff in Japan is freaking weird.

That temple also had a row of quotes in Japanese from important Buddhist dudes. (They also had the translations, which I decided to use for the ol' blog since I figure most of you lovely readers will speak at least one of these three languages.) This one was my favorite. <3




Apparently, this guy's sort of a big deal in Buddhism. I had no idea, but I was really into these images. I totally dig those sexy sexy eyebrows. What a hottie.

And sometimes, it rains. This is the rock garden at the Silver Pavilion. There are definitely worse places on this planet to be caught in a storm.














PS. Memo to Americans: There are other countries in Asia besides Japan. Really, if you locate the continent on a map, you'll notice that Asia is actually a fairly sizable place. Japan's neat and all, but I wanted to make everyone aware that there are other options. This was literally the first holiday I've been on in Asia and run into more Americans than Europeans. It seems like Americans don't travel except to other parts of America, Western Europe, Japan or do the Caribbean cruise thing, if they travel at all. Basically, only places where you have to hemorrhage money for a week, but at least you can find a McDonald's around the corner. What's with that?