nara-osaka

The last day in Nara started with chagayu (rice gruel made with tea) but with different condiments...and this hotel served coffee with our meal too (most times you only receive tea when you have a Japanese style meal).

Next to our hotel was this odd pyramid thingy called Zutou ("zoo-toe"...literally head tower)...apparently no one really knows why it was built here or who actually built it.

I thought our hotel would give us a little discount on the admission which was 300 yen, but they didn't, so we just admired it from the outside...

We then walked up the hill to Shinyakushiji.

If you visit this temple, go watch the video that they are showing first (only in Japanese though).

It shows how they used x-ray and other techniques to figure out what the warrior statues guarding the Yakushi Nyorai statue actually might have looked like originally with paint and other patterns.

Satoshi also mentioned that if you visit places that let you go around the statues, they will make you go around it clockwise. Apparently this is a Buddhist thing.

Walking back down towards Nara town, I had mentioned to Satoshi that wouldn't it be cool if we came across deer in the suburbs? And we did (sorry no photo).

It was a nice "hold your breath" moment.

On FB, Reader V, mentioned that there was an udon shop that she loves that is "behind the yomogi mochi shop" (love social media!).

I actually had the yomogi mochi shop bookmarked which is called Nakatanido.

If you've ever done mochi-tsuki (pounding rice cakes) you'll be in awe of these guys...they have krazy technique!

We weren't able to see them in action, but I did find something here.

These yomogi mochi are filled with sweet bean paste.

We did pick up a couple for snack on our train ride back...delicious!

Around the corner from Nakatanido is V's favorite shop, Mentoan.

They are popular for their kinchaku kitsune udon.

A huge aburaage is filled with udon noodles and tied with the green onions.

Satoshi had their curry version while I had their original.

Both were delicious, though I prefer my aburaage in kitsune udon to be sweetened.

We were the first in line and when we left the line to get in was quite long. (Thanks for the tip V!)

Despite the icy winds, I'm glad the weather was quite cooperative.

It was a short adventure filled with lots of walking, lots of eating and we got to see more of Nara.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Nakatanido
29 Hashimoto-cho
Nara, Nara
Phone: 0742.23.0141
Hours: 10:00-19:00

Mentoan
30-1 Hashimoto-cho
Nara, Nara
Phone: 0742.25.3581
Hours: 11:00-19:00, or earlier if they run out of noodles or aburaage
Closed Tuesdays