June 17th continued

The temple in the "deer park" contains the world's largest seated Buddha. He is flanked by two other figures who appear Buddha-like as well; however they are guilded and ornamented. Thisis to signify that they have not yet achieved enlightenment. There are also the four traditional guardians of the four directions. Two are intact and two are only heads. One of the temple's support pillars has a hole quite near the bottom and tradition says if you can fit through the hole you will have good luck. The young people who try need to have someone pull them through and everyone has a good laugh. There are a few monks on the grounds; one seems to be communing with one of the deer and another is talking with some of the school children.

We ask Ayaka what her favorite restaurant is and she takes us to Okaru where we have okonomiyaku, which are Dale's "not quite a pancake". They are prepared on the hot surface in the center of our table and are about an inch thick. Betsy and Nick have potato and cheese, mine is tuna and cheese and Ginger gets the Special which has lots of different kinds of seafood including shrimp and squid and I don't know what all! Auaka orders dumplings with octopus inside for us to try and they are suprisingly good. She only eats one and a tiny taste of our "pancakes". Of course she weighs about nothing! The batter is egg and flour and cabbage and is a bit like a frittata - but not too much like one!

There is going to be a parade! We arrive in time to catch the whole thing which lasts about five minutes. There is a princess who is moving from one shrine to another and it has somethng to do with the lack of lilies which are offered to her particular deity, rather like oranges are offered to the Buddha. There are about ten couples who walk under red parasols and a group of small children are pulling a cinderella coach. Taking pictures is a challenge because the parade moves down the sidewalk and traffic continues to flow on the road between us and it!

After the parade Aya heads us back toward the station and we thank her for spending so much of her day with us. Almost immediately we come up a store that is making rice rolls (?). The "batter" is actually beaten rice which is green and the batter is in a large wooden barrel. Two men with large and heavy wooden mallets tae turns pounding the batter, rather like the old photos of the Chinese driving spikes into the railroad into our old West. The pounding gets faster and faster and then one of the men puts down his mallet and when it is his turn he reaches into the barrel and folds the dough! And this gets faster and faster and it is hard to watch for fear his hand will be pulverized! The dough is dropped into a hopper and, magically, sweet bean paste is squired into the middle. The dough drops out the bottom in round mounds of yum and they are rolled in some sort of powder. The first bite is only dough if you are a bit timid; but it you take a good-sized bite and get the bean paste, the whole effect is quite delicious!!

You know we have to stop at the quilt store! Surprisingly the fabric is not that exciting and it seems as though quilting in Japan is more like quilting at home used to be a long time ago. Ginger is able to walk out empty handed without feeling deprived.

We are content to catch the train home and crash for a bit before dinner.