Feeling Famous in Nara

Friday morning was an early one for us…  and judging by the amount of people still sleeping in our dorm room, I’d say many travellers opt for sleeps in. Anyway it meant the kitchen wasn’t  busy so we prepared breakfast and walked to the closest station. We took a couple of local trains to Nara, it was the cheapest option. I had no idea which ones to catch… so that’s when Shota likes to show off and take charge!

It was a short journey to Nara, under an hour, and the Hostel was conveniently located across the road from the station. Up the elevator and one flight of stairs we reached our destination, and found the smallest Hostel ever created! Well that I had ever seen anyway. The owner was a lovely man who spoke fluent English, he told us how he and some tradie mates of his converted the building into a Hostel. There was only one room of bunk beds, eight in total and all had privacy curtains and reading lights. There was a small living/kitchen area, that our Host seemed to spend all his time in and one shower and toilet. It was very cute, but I felt like we were imposing… Luckily for us there was only one other guest, a German man. Our host and the German man sat up till late into the night talking and drinking green tea.

We began by heading into the city of Nara, where I was eagerly waiting to see my first Japanese Deer. Nara did not disappoint, there were Deer everywhere… In the Shinto religion Sika (deer) are considered messengers of the gods, so they are allowed to roam around the grounds freely.

There were also School children everywhere. They must have been visiting from another town, another town that does not have many foreigners, because they were quite excited to see me (and other Foreigners) and would yell out “Hello” as they walked past. Some of the children were a little braver and would say “Kumera” and act out taking a photo… that was them asking for a photo with me. So the disposable camera’s came out and Shota took the picture. The first time it happened I was very flattered! Then it kept on happening… so by the end of the day I felt like a Movie star J Quite a proud moment in my life…hahahha…. (I’m sad I know).

My fabulous friend Mutto (thats how Japanese pronounce Matt) suggested that maybe the children were confused, and thought I was the English singer "Jessie J"... not sure, but I wouldn't mind being confused for her :)

Whilst walking through one of the parks we came accross a toilet block... I felt it was a slightly rude toilet block....... as you can see the "Males" doing their business! True!

Nara is so beautiful and has so many temples and shrines in easy walking distance of each other, you also get to see many deer , which I think is pretty amazing.

Our lovely Hostel Host suggested we visit a beautiful Japanese Garden, it is free for "Foreigners".. Shota had no problems with flashing his "Australian" licence... he better get used to being "Australian" I say! The lady at the front desk believed him too, she even went through the map of the garden in English with us, which usually never happens.   

Next we wondered along the streets full of Deer,there are vendors selling rice crackers that you can feed to them (deer)... we watched on as an Australian tourist got swarmed by deer, we didn't feed any, just watched everyone else...

 The most famous site in Nara is the Todai-ji, this is the largest wooden building in the world. The temple is World Heritage listed.

The Todai-ji houses the world’s largest bronze Buddha, Daibutsu. It was a pretty impressive and fascinating site! So enormously huge!!

We spent the day photographing many sites, laughing at tourists getting harassed by Deer and enjoying the Autumn foliage.

 Later back at our Hostel Shota mentioned that we were keen to see a temple lit up at night. So our host, who was going to visit a friend, dropped us off at a site. He also suggested some restaurants and we decided on a another “Sushi Train”, it was quite cheap 105 Yen per plate, so $1.36, pretty good…

 My outfit, Beanie and Skivvie, was a gift from my beautiful and thoughtful friend Penny. Thanks so much! I love it :)

Then as we were walking home we discovered the best shopping centre ever! We were too tired to look around everywhere, but we did visit “Loft” and found the bestest Christmas cards. Each card has a drawing of a different temple or Shrine on it, so we picked ones we had visited, but with a touch of “Christmas” added to them! So beautiful J

 Golden Temple in Kyoto

 Fushimi- Inari Taiji, Also in Kyoto