19. Chapter: Farewell to Nara

This afternoon, I will return to Kyoto. I find it hard to part from Nara because I don't know if I will ever come back again. I am a notorious returnee and enjoy traveling back and forth to places that have become dear to me.

Nara is a magical, almost unreal place. One feels in a completely different reality, and I am afraid that although I have taken so many photos, the images in my mind will fade. The sounds, the noise, the wind, the temperatures, the various scents, and even the glow of the now incredibly colorful leaves cannot truly be captured in a photo. I fear that I will someday forget what it feels like to touch a very young, fluffy deer, and how smooth, warm, and soft the adult animals are beneath my hands. Maybe I will never be able to pet a deer again in this life. The old wood of the entrance gates and temples, the red pillars and roof structures near the Great Buddha, the overgrown cosmos garden, and the forests of stone lanterns beneath enormous dark trees, all of this is completely unique and so wonderful that I would gladly leave at least one eye here just to keep looking.

Yesterday, I visited a very modern photography museum, with interesting architecture and interior design, a beautiful minimalist café, and very imaginative chairs, three exhibitions, including photographs by a well-known Japanese artist who captured rural Nara in the 1950s and 60s, before mass tourism began. There was also a lot of experimental work, including international pieces. Again, not a single person in sight!

And I saw a tree near a temple that partially collapsed under heavy snow in 1719, today entirely hollow but alive and full of many lush green leaves at the top branches.

I will spend the last day simply walking and sitting in the park, buying deer crackers once more, feeding and petting them a lot, so to speak, stocking up to train my memory. Then I will eat battered oysters one last time and set off for new adventures in other places.