If you give a deer a biscuit...

It’s cool that Nara was Japan’s first permanent capital and is full of imperial history but it was talk of free-roaming deer that eat out of your hand that really drew me in. Sure enough, as soon as we stepped foot into Nara-kōen (a huge park occupying half the city), we were surrounded by deer. True, I’d already bought deer biscuits and they could probably smell them, but they were also everywhere. Laura Numeroff should steer clear of writing, “If you give a deer a biscuit…” because really all that happens if you give a deer a biscuit is that he follows you around until you have no more biscuits, then he follows you around just a little longer to make absolutely sure. Considering how intimidated I was by this, you can probably imagine how the little kids felt. Their faces would go from excitement to sheer terror in a matter of seconds. Kind of priceless.

We obviously stopped by Tōdai-ji for a look at the famous Daibutsu (Great Buddha) and Niō guardians at the entrance gate, but we also discovered that Isui-en garden is Juan’s favorite Japanese garden in all three of his trips to Japan. The show-stealer for me, though, was the walk to Kasuga Taisha shrine. The pathways are lined with hundreds (maybe thousands) of lanterns. And I’m not talking paper lanterns you buy for Halloween to line your sidewalk. I’m talking four- to six-foot stone lanterns patterned after pagodas and covered with delicate rice paper. The 8th-century shrine itself is also fascinating because Shintō tradition apparently required that it be completely rebuilt every 20 years.

How did we end up in Vegas?

Before we started this trip, Juan spent an afternoon creating a complicated Excel spreadsheet containing a list of every country in the world and a column for each of us showing how many we had both visited, how many we would visit together on this trip, and so on.  Obviously, my trip with Danielle gives me a serious numerical advantage and Juan is quick to complain when we go visit a country he’s been to already but I haven’t.

So, in the spirit of love and compromise, I agreed to take a day-trip to Macau with Juan.  I visited Macau on my boondoggle trip to Hong Kong in 2005 and really enjoyed the old Portuguese squares, free almond biscuit samples, and my daring jump off the Macau tower.  I’d been warned how much it had changed but I still wasn’t prepared to arrive in Vegas. 

Apparently, Macau overtook Vegas in terms of gambling revenue back in 2007.  All the big name casinos line what looks like a miniature version of the Vegas strip.  They have the weird water shows with accompanying opera music that the Bellagio popularized, free shuttle buses from the ferries to facilitate easy access to their casinos and overpriced food.  The only thing they don’t quite have yet, is girls walking around in scantily clad outfits bringing you drinks.  Probably because the Chinese take their gambling seriously.  This is a place to win money – not to drink free drinks, ogle women and party at nightclubs.   I didn’t see a single Chinese gambler having an alcoholic drink.  They order a limeade and hunker down to focus on the game in front of them.  Does this mean that Macau now does Vegas better than Vegas?

To be fair, some of the beautiful Portuguese architecture still exists – the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral are still well-preserved and the mosaic streets are in great condition.  Most importantly, almond biscuits are still free.