Osaka. Feb 22, 2026

Today we arrived in Osaka, Japan—the first of our three stops in Japan aboard the Diamond Princess. Entering Osaka turned into a lesson in long lines. Everyone on the ship, whether visiting Osaka or remaining onboard, had to disembark and go through Immigration. They checked our papers and our backpacks. We were photographed, fingerprinted, scrutinized, and basically made to feel like suspects.

When it was finally over, we went outside and met up with our tour guide, driver, and high-dollar private van for a trip to Nara Deer Park. Our first destination was the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was huge, for sure! Inside were several large Buddhas and a couple of smaller ones. One, in fact, had lost his body and the only part of him on display was his large head. Apparently his wooden body had been badly burned many years ago, and all that remained was the head. Kind of like that one movie…you know, the head floating down the river singing, “I ain’t got nobody.”

The temple itself was an amazing wooden structure.

Huge wooden pillars and beams supported the massive roof. The pillars were shaped to look like trees about two feet in diameter and perhaps 20 or 30 feet tall (I don’t really know for sure because I can’t see). Our guide said this particular Buddha was one of the largest anywhere. It was carved from a massive tree by a Buddha maker many centuries ago. The temple itself was not the oldest, but it was the largest. Some say it is about 600 years old. During that time, samurai battles destroyed it…twice. About 1,200 deer roam the forested grounds as freely as squirrels. If someone holds their hand above a deer’s head and then moves it down and back up again, the deer appears to take a bow and everyone laughs. People say the deer are showing respect or bowing politely. The truth is, the deer probably thinks it’s being given food. It looks up at the hand coming down, then immediately checks the ground for anything that might have fallen, then looks back up at the hand again. If the deer actually bent a knee, I might believe the respect theory.

The 1,200 deer roaming the grounds are protected by local laws and are not to be killed, eaten, or injured. They cross busy roads whenever they feel like it—much like the Fijians. Sometimes traffic has to wait a while while the deer slowly cross one at a time.

We ate lunch at a small restaurant that served good but mostly unpronounceable Japanese food. One dish was something like a Japanese pizza that contained shrimp. It was very good. We also had yakisoba noodles—at least that’s what I think they were called. There were barbecue chicken chunks and a dish of cold peas, similar to snow peas but with a shell you couldn’t eat. Anyway, lunch was very good. Afterward we had an hour to walk around, check out the small shops, and buy a few things. We found a pharmacy and bought some Salonpas patches for our aches and pains, along with a few snacks that probably weren’t good for us but were certainly tasty.

We also visited a former Japanese home. It was a typical house with a simple interior, small rooms, and designed for extended families to share. It was very interesting. Sitting on the floor around a small table for dinner may be traditional, but my knees don’t bend that way anymore! We returned to the ship early enough to meet up with our friend Oki, a former exchange student who lived with us when we were in Oregon. He now lives in Tokyo but is currently in Osaka attending school and working on his master’s degree. We had told him we were on a tour, but he said he wanted to see us even if it was only for an hour.

We met him beneath the big Ferris wheel. It was so good to see Oki and the fine young man he has become. He was glad to see us too. We plan to meet up with him again when we reach our final destination of Tokyo. Oki will be our guide that day. It looks like we may even get to have dinner with him and meet his mom. That will be fun. Back on the ship, we ate dinner and then weighed anchor.

I think it was about 186 pounds.