On 11/02 was our trip to Nara! It’s an easy day trip from Kyoto or Osaka because it’s only an hour away by train. Most people go to visit Nara park which is a large park with temples in it and many many deer.
As we walked to the park from the station, we stopped to get lunch at Wakakusa Curry. We heard it was good, though it was a little hard to find! The curry was flavorful without being too rich, and it was especially tasty when mixed with egg and rice.
Shortly after we ate, the rain began to pour, and we had to take cover under some trees until it passed. When it lightened up, we were able to meet with our friends Robbie and Zerlina who flew in from Philadelphia! Robbie and I have talked about taking a Japan trip together for a long time, and we finally made it happen 😀
I have to admit that the reason I wanted to go to Nara was to feed deer. They’re all over the park, along with vendors selling food for them. Since they’re used to people, they’ll come up to you for food. (Sometimes a little too close. They don’t have the concept of personal space!) Some will even nudge you with their head. Also, they bow to you! It’s both cute and weird, and you should totally watch this short video of them bowing to my husband 😉
We returned to Kyoto later and felt we needed sushi again. It was disappointing that our last sushi meal was bad, and that needed to be corrected. We chose a conveyer belt sushi place near our hotel, and it was good! Plus, the chefs kept the belt constantly full and with a variety of pieces. Each plate had 1-2 pieces of nigiri, and between my husband and I, we pulled 20 dishes.
We thought it would be expensive, but this was our first shock at how cheap sushi is in Japan. It came out to 2800 yen (~$24). I had never paid so little for good sushi before!
The next day (11/03), we took another day trip but to Osaka this time, which is only half an hour away by train. We started our morning by visiting their aquarium. The morning is apparently the popular time to go because it was packed. Fortunately, the crowds thinned out the further we went. The aquarium had a very large variety of sea animals, and the most impressive part was the massive tank in the middle. It could be seen from all sides and from multiple stories and even had a whale shark in it.
For lunch, we went to a nearby mall for the Naniwa food theme park – an area with multiple food vendors in an old style look. Japan seems to have a thing for food themed places, and I am all for that. My husband and I wanted to try multiple things, so we shared a fried potato skewer, rice filled omelette, and an okonomiyaki.
And right next to this was a giant ferris wheel! I love really tall ferris wheels because they give great views. This one gave us views of Osaka city and the bay.
From here, we took the train over to Osakajokoen (Osaka castle park). I didn’t really want to go in the castle, but I did want to walk around it and take photos. We didn’t realize that the 400th anniversary of the castle was being celebrated and were wondering what all the noise was. Then we saw the Danjiris (portal shrines) coming towards us!
Each one was pushed and pulled by a large group of people, with a few people inside to play percussion. Each Danjiri group was also dressed differently. We had no idea what this was (I looked it up afterwards), but it was fun to watch 🙂
When we returned to Kyoto, we met up with our friends again and had ramen at Ramen Koji, the ramen floor I mentioned previously. This time we tried Kamigata Zanmaiya. This was tasty too, though more of a normal pork ramen broth, so it wasn’t too memorable.
Next up is more in Kyoto, mainly Arashiyama!
Hahaha love the bowing deer! They aren’t scared of people one little bit, eh?! Also, $24 for sushi???!! Holy crap that’s cheap. I can’t believe it.
Nara looks soooo beautiful! Especially with the deer roaming around :D. Japan looks like a total animal-friendly place, especially since they’re around people often! The curry looks yummy~
I remembered seeing that deer bowing to your husband! That’s so adorable!!! These deer have great manners ;D. I’m not sure if you like cats, but have you been to cat island?
Sushi in Japan sounds like heaven!! And for 20 plates being $24, that’s pretty good! Those sushi looks way more legit than the ones here. All I see here on conveyer belts are California rolls :(.
It’s so cool that there’s a whale shark in the aquarium!! It must be great to be eating legit Japanese food in Japan, right? ;D ;D.
24 bucks!? AWESOME!!! Ah the eggs in that ramen look yummy!!
I love your journey through Japan! You totally show a different side to the countryside – seriously awesome!!! It looks like you had tons of fun too!!!
Oh gosh those deer are lovely! I can’t believe how confident they are around humans too. The aquarium pictures look amazing too – especially the little otters! I love aquariums, they’re very surreal places!
The ramen looks yummy!Are the potato skewers nice? They had some at a food festival once but the queue for them was so long I had to avoid it! The 400th anniversary celebration looks great, that’s really fortunate that you got to stumble across it!
Such beautiful landscapes, the deers look really cute *u*
Wow, 20 plates of sushi for 2800 yen? That’s amazing, sushi trains here charge like $3.50 per plate.
I think now I know why Nara Shikamaru’s family had a bunch of deer as companions. That’s a lot of deer! I watched the video and agree your husband should have given it to the more enthusiastic one. I wonder how they learned to bow. From Japanese people?
That’s really awesome you got to meet up with your friends in a different country. My friend from Australia and I want to take a trip in Beijing and Hong Kong together. Someday, when we have money.
I hate the price of good sushi here (which is probably mediocre sushi in Japan). $8.50 for 8 pieces.
How do they accommodate a whale shark in an aquarium? That thing is GIGANTIC and a predator, in a tank with countless other fish. I’m actually not sure what they eat – just have it in my mind they don’t like to eat people.
Wow an Asian-style castle! I would have never imagined such a thing existed because Asian traditional houses are usually one-floored. It’s so majestic!
How many more posts are coming up? Did you go to Okinawa? There’s just so much to see in Japan I’m never going to see everything in one trip!
I have a feeling that whale shark wasn’t fully grown because it didn’t look that big in person. But yeah, those things are normally huge! I don’t know what they’re going to do once that one is an adult size =O
We stayed in the Kanto and Kansai region, so we didn’t go to Okinawa (Okinawa is actually pretty far from Tokyo). I have 3 or 4 more posts planned!
That is a lot of deer, but the pictures that you took are so beautiful! I love all of your pictures!
Osaka and Nara look like a lot of fun! I’m not usually a fan of deers as I find them to be a driving hazard and they carry ticks, but the deers in Nara just seem more…lovable, haha. Feeding them sounds like fun too!