Oh Deer!

Today we tackled Nara.

First off, Nara is a beautiful city and despite what people say, doing it in a single day just doesn’t cut it. We could have spent many more there. In fact, there was still a lot we didn’t get to do while we were there today. Oh well, future trip, right?

So we entered Nara and started going towards the recommended walk. It started by walking through many tourist shops where we found a pair of chopsticks that were made out of deer antler. They were gorgeous, and expensive. We went back for them at the end of the day. (c: So now we have four pairs of chopsticks for our dining table at home (when we have one of those). We continued the walk, and I was starting to wonder about the deer. I thought perhaps they were all off hiding. But only a block after that thought entered my mind, there was an explosion of them. They were everywhere.

You could go right up to them, pet them, feed them, sleep on them. We bought a stack of deer biscuits/cookies and started feeding them.

Some of them really go crazy when they know you have food. I had a deer but his head right into my butt. They were pretty unrelenting. We continued our walk, practically swimming through deer, and came to the Todai-ji temple.

This temple is the largest wood building in Japan, and holds the largest Buddha statue.

It was awe inspiring. It was just so beautiful, we were so glad we got a chance to visit. While we were there, we contributed money to help in the restoration of the temple. In return, we got to put our names on a roof tile that will be used in the restoration.

So now John and I will always have a part of us in Japan. As we left the temple I felt so happy I couldn’t help but tear up. Everything was so beautiful, and nothing could have spoiled the moment.

We continued our walk through the deer turd infested parks and paths. We saw another temple that had a TON of cool lanterns.

John and I were bummed that we wouldn’t get to see them lit, as the sight was sure to be spectacular. But we were ready for food. We went to another recommended place on our way back to the station. It was called Shizuka. The information guide we had to ask about it’s location said that it was a very famous/popular place and we had good taste. They serve a dish called Kamameshi which is rice cooked in a small pot with various meats, veggies and seafood thrown in. It was delicious.

After food it was time to catch the train home. We ended up taking the local train,so it took forever to get back, but the express train wouldn’t have come for another 45 minutes. We are home now and settling in for the evening. Our train for Beppu leaves tomorrow morning at 7:49am. It will be an early start for us. But we will get in just in time for lunch in our new place.

The new hotel does have internet, but not wireless so we have to share the computer with others (the hotels computer). I’m not sure if we’ll be able to share more pictures after that, but if not, we will be uploading an entire album of all the pictures from the trip once we get back. There are a lot of great ones.

Anyway, it’s getting late, gotta go to bed.

Dewa mata! (see you later!)