Day 12 of 15, Nara

We’re going to Nara today. A one day trip.

So of course, we have to catch the train to get there.

We use this street everyday to get to the subway. Joining the peak hour, kids going to school, adults going to work, we going to Nara… etc.

Here we are in Nara.

We did quite alot of walking in Nara. And mostly just browse through the attractions, didn’t really go in, so again… I won’t really write much, maybe just describe the picture here and there. Enjoy.

Some shrine we walked pass, can’t even remember what it’s called.

So what is Nara famous for? It’s deers…. hahaha… lots and lots and lots of them…. they are everywhere!

And no, Mum, we can’t eat them. They are considered sacred animals especially in Nara. Protected…. but then again, who knows.. we don’t have a local to explain it to us.

And alot alot alot of temples and shrines here. We were actually a bit sien (bored) of looking at shrines and temples by now.

A five storied pagoda.

A five story pagoda with a two story Flora.

The five story pagoda is next to the Kofukuji-Temple.

While Mat was looking at the map, a fly landed on it and wouldn’t budge. I could even take a close up picture of it without scaring it away.

Then we walked pass the Nara National Museum (this photo is the back side of the museum).

… and reached 2 gardens side by side. One is called the Yoshikien Garden, and the other is Isuien Garden.

This is Yoshikien Garden.

Outside the Yoshikien Garden, we saw this sign…. both our eyes met, and it went “Ting!” … “Free for Foreign Tourists.”… OF COURSE LAH GO IN!

Welcome to Yoshikien Garden. It’s a small garden, compared to other gardens we’ve been to. But like any other gardens, it is so well groomed.

Not sure if you can see properly in this next picture. The man on the right is wearing an umbrella hat.

Next garden, Isuien Garden. This garden have to pay to go in. We don’t mind paying to see beautiful gardens.

Beautiful right? Everybody say… wahhhh~~~

Found a frog which is nearly a frog…. still got a little bit of tail.

And further round the pond, saw a frog, HALFWAY becoming a frog… still have lots of tail left. Very rare to find this halfway frog… so I guess I’m lucky.

Took a rest in the tea house beside the pond. Ordered some tea and sweets. I was trying to take a picture of both of us using the timer.

Note to self: 2 secs is not enough for me to press the button and run next to Mat.

Let’s try again. This time 10 secs!… much better… even got enough time to peace sign.

This is what I ordered. Red beans with Uji tea. Actually it’s also green tea, just that they roast the tea leaves, and it becomes that colour. This whole set is soooo refreshing. Both red beans and uji tea is served cold. The two white cubes in my red bean is something like mochi.

Mat ordered this set. Pure green tea and some sweets. He said the green tea tastes like chlorophyll. It tastes really really green. Very thick green tea I would say.

After a good cup of tea, continued our walk in the garden.

Nara is also famous for it’s handmade glass. You can see a difference in handmade glass. I don’t think the camera can capture the difference. If you look at the glass side ways, if the glass is handmade, you can see waves. If it’s machine made, the surface is smooth.

Heh… I was waiting for this other guy to go away so I can get a clean photo, and I think he was waiting for me to go away so he can get a clean photo from the other side. Neither of us budged. So we took each other’s pictures… hahaha.

Mat showing you the Lonely Planet Japan book.. very very helpful!

This is Nandaimon Gate.

This is the result of having too many deers in one place. The tourists find it amusing, saying, kawai (cute)…. and want to feed and touch and take photos of the deers. As for the locals… they think the deers are such a pest… the air in Nara really smells of deer poo.

The Nandaimon Gate is guarded by 2 evil, scary looking statues.

And it leads to Todaiji Temple.

See what I mean about the relationship between tourist and deers?

Todaiji Temple is the most famous temple in Nara. But we didn’t go in. Because according to Mathias, inside this temple is just a statue of a huge sleeping buddha. Don’t think I want to pay 500YEN just to see somebody sleeping.

I took these two photos through the gate of the temple.

Let’s move along now.

We arrive at the Great Bell… that’s what it’s called.

Before moving on, let’s have lunch. I ordered Soba.

And Mat ordered udon and gyudon. The food looks delicious, but it wasn’t that great. Just so so. We chose this restaurant/cafe because it was located at such a strategic location. And it was the only restaurant at the top of this hill, so we got no other choices.

Mat ready pounce at the dessert. You keep seeing us eating shaved ice and ice cream in Japan, because it is really hot at this time of the year. Even my soba noodles is served cold. That is how they eat it in hot weather.

This is Nigatsu-do Hall.

From up here, we can roughly see the whole of Nara.

A group of school kids.

A group of deers.

And this group of deers are having a committee meeting to discuss on ways to get food easily, and how to buy souvenirs without any money.

A very nature looking bus stop.

And we stopped for another rest. While Mat was checking where we are in google maps, I was busy taking photos of the surroundings.

Saw a very interesting warning. It says “The deer of Nara Park are wild animals. They can occasionally attack people, so pelase be careful”.

I particularly like the last picture… “Knock Down”… lol

Took another short rest at a supermarket. Actually just busy body, just want to look at the prices of groceries. The prices of fruit is really very expensive. Feeling fruit and vegetable deprived, we got ourselves a bottle of vegetable juice. Very interesting drink. Before we bought the drink, this was our conversation between each other:

Flo: Hey… this looks interesting.

Mat: Let’s try it.

Flo: (looking at the list of ingredients)… eeee~… got celery and parsley inside…. nice or not?

Mat: Dunno

Flo: Ok…. if it’s not nice, you drink it all….  >:)

Mat: (after a long thought)… ok

When Mathias took the first sip, his eyebrows went upwards. Then he said:

“It’s not nice.. (took a big gulp),… not nice at all (took another big gulp)… really… it’s not nice (and took a loonnnggg drink).”… actually he wanted the juice all to himself.

The juice was in fact really refreshing. That bottle quenched our fruit and veg deprivation for the moment.

Walked around the shops.

Saw some very enthusiastic men pounding mochi. Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. This mochi has been added green tea, therefore the green colour. Otherwise, it’s white in colour.

Streets of Nara.

Nara Station.

And we’re back in Kyoto. Next to Kyoto station is Kyoto tower. You’ll see a lot of pictures of Kyoto tower here.

Kyoto station is huge. It even has shopping complexes inside.

Went right up.

And saw more views of Kyoto.

On the other side of Kyoto Station. Note the amount of escalators just to reach the top.

Going up some more to the highest floor.

And more views of Kyoto.

Had dinner in Kyoto station. To be more exact, Isetan. This is a curry cafe in Isetan.

Japanese curry is very different. They pronounce it as Kare. It tastes a bit like kurma, but then, it’s not kurma. Mat ordered chicken curry.

And I had prawn curry.

And after dinner, time to go home. These are our subway tickets. So tiny. So make sure you keep your subway tickets properly, or else the deer will eat them!

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