Story time: After walking across Nara all day, I came back to the Kasuga shrine in hopes that they would light the lanterns, which still had candles in them from the previous lighting. I debated whether to wait until dark to see, or just to go back and eat something. I ultimately decided to try to ask someone, but my dictionary did not have any of the words I needed. Its word for “lamp” was “lanpu,” a transliteration of the English, and surely not the word for the stone lanterns. The translation of illuminate was “laituppu,” a transliteration of “light up”. It did not even have the word for “candle.” I did know the word for “fire,” but that would be more like the entire place going up in flames, so also not helpful. After my attempt at using the dictionary’s words apparently made no sense, I had to draw a picture of a stone lamp, ask what the word was (“touruu”), draw a picture of a candle burning and ask if it was doing it tonight. Apparently the lamps are lit three times a year, tonight not being one of them. Too bad, it would have looked spectacular.