Japan Trip - Day 5

For Day 5 of our trip, we went to the city of Nara, just 40 minutes by rail east of Osaka.

We had a quick early lunch at Café Salon, in the underground shopping district (named Namba Walk). Osaka has such excellent food – even the regular ham and egg sandwiches are amazing. They are also so well portioned for the customer. :)

To get to Nara, we had to take the rail instead of the subway. We were sitting down majority of the way there but by the last two stops before our destination, we had to leave our carriage and move down to the last four carriages. Thankfully, a lady passenger told us that or else we would have been totally clueless as to what’s going on. :( It turns out that the previous carriages were nearly empty so they herded everyone to the last four. It was jam-packed in the other carriage. We couldn’t sit down so we had to stand up. The ride was bumpy on the rail so I had to make sure I gripped really hard on the ring handle.

We arrived at Nara Station by 12 noon and went to the Visitor’s Information Centre to get any additional information that we may have missed at the Osaka’s Visitor Centre in the Namba Station. The lady at the Nara Visitor Information Centre circled three places on the walking tour map that all tourists should check out first. They are: Kofukuji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and the Todaiji Temple.

There were deer everywhere! It was kind of crazy how deer co-exist with the inhabitants of the city. Close to the entrance of the Kofukuji Temple there was a vendor cart selling deer food which are circular flat thin pancakes made of grain. I bought one package (there are about 6 pancakes in 1 package) for 150 yen and as soon as I turned my body, the deers appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the food from my hand. I was stunned to say the least. They are quick when it comes to food! ;p

A deer grabbed my brother-in-law’s map from his hand. The deer chewed his map and one of the workers had to remove it. My sister bought a package but she was too scared of the aggressive deers that she didn’t pick it up from the vendor cart. One of the vendors pointed at the deer park area behind the vendor cart, but my sister didn’t want to pick up the food. Eventually she did and we fed the deer the pancakes in the grassy area. We were also amused with other people’s attempts around us. :)

We did not go inside the Kofukuji Temple. We walked around the premises which includes the temple itself and the Five Story Pagoda. We prayed at the shrine (donated one-yen coin, rung the bell, clapped hands twice and prayed) and continued down the path (flight of carved stone stairs southwards) to the Sarusawa-ike Pond. I fell in love with Sarusawa-ike Pond!! There were red-eared slider turtles everywhere! They are so cute and adorable that I took many photos of them sunbathing, swimming, and begging for food from passerby.

We went to the Nara National Museum for a breather where we bought some souvenirs and refreshments. After half an hour, we went back outside. Instead of going to Todaiji Temple first which was north of Kofukuji Temple, we proceeded to doing a hike through Kasugayama Primeval Forest (eastwards of the Kofukuji Temple). The primeval forest of trees are protected by law against logging. It is a wide and beautiful sight just to walk through.

By going through the primeval forest, we reached the Garden of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. The garden is lined with stone lanterns leading the way to the shrine. The stone lanterns are gorgeous with intricate designs carved into them.

We reached the Kasuga Taisha Shrine in no time. Beautiful hanging lanterns decorate the shrine and workers delicately clean them. There were more serene areas within the shrine that one can sit and enjoy the peaceful surroundings while reading prose or practicing calligraphy.

The entire walk around the shrine took longer than what we expected. By the time we finished the walk and went backwards through the primeval forest to the Todaiji Temple (westwards then northwards), it was already 5:30pm and the last admission to the temple was 4:30pm. It was a shame we missed going inside the Todaiji Temple but we did take lots of nice photos of the outside temple and gates. The security officer at the front door of the temple allowed my brother-in-law to go inside the front entrance to take some photos for only five minutes the most. That was very nice of him to allow the photos. :)

It was around 6pm when we headed back to Namba. Unfortunately, we messed up our rail entrance and ended up on the reserved seating train. I realized this after the fact (after we got on the train) because of the reserved green seats triggered that something is definitely wrong here. A woman traveler tried to help us by speaking to the train ticket officer going down the aisle. It turns out we can sit on the train in the non-reserved seats (the yellow seats) as long as you pay the additional 500yen on top of the regular fare. After the embarrassment, we paid our fee and enjoyed the half-hour ride back to Namba Station. :p

We are so tired from today’s excursion. I am sun-burned from today’s walk, even though I am wearing SPF and a light jacket. The sun was so intense. Add humidity level to the scorching heat and I understand why I was perspiring so heavily. I now have a farmer’s tan. :(

Tomorrow is a free day, meaning there is no scheduled trips to certain tourist areas. We will most likely split up and do our own shopping and sightseeing.

It will be our last full day in Osaka. I’m so sad… :(