The next day we woke up early so that Satoshi could check out Nara for an upcoming tour
There were definitely more deer to the amount of foreigners
Um if you are gonna hold the deer senbei be prepared to be surrounded immediately by hungry deer
You should’ve seen all the screaming tourists, and some kids were definitely traumatized by the deer…but that’s what happens if you’re holding their snacks
We went to Todaiji & Kasuga Shrine both places had increased their admission fees, I think this deters those just wanting to use the property to film their videos for social media
It was another gross humid & hot day
I bought this because we really needed it
Friends Y & Hiromi met us in Kyoto for an early dinner (17:00)
Talking and eating non-stop for 2 plus hours, we hope they had a nice time too
It was a short trip to Kansai, the heat and humidity were brutal but we were happy we got to do, see and eat the things we had set out to do.
It is the start of September but the heat doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon
With all the rain and cold weather we've been having I thought I would post some items that were making me sad...
Before leaving Osaka, I found out from my friend, Kiyomi that at the end of May, Au Grenier D'Or in Kyoto is closing its doors...I'm sad because over the years we've been there several times...the first time, once with friends and once with Tamakikat.
Well, there is apparently an artist that says "his" version is copyrighted so this particular version that was put up by art students was violating "his" copyright.
He said that if they changed the artist's name to his then he would "forgive" them...I think it is a case of "sour grapes" because of all the attention this version is receiving on Instagram.
Anyway, if you go to K Coffee the phone booth is no longer there...boo!
The Big Island (Hawaii) lava eruption.
The Kīlauea volcano has been erupting since I can remember, but all those displaced families, so sad...I hope they will be able to safely return to their homes and rebuild their lives soon.
And the last thing I'm sad about at the moment...is that I recently found out a 6-story building is coming up in front of where we live... I am crossing my fingers that it doesn't block our view.
I know I don't usually post on sad or negative topics, but is there anything you are sad about at the moment?
Sunday, we were heading out to Nara when Satoshi who has a bad habit of walking in front of me, took me out and I landed "kerplat" on the pavement.
I usually have a chance to "deflect" him, but this time he came out of nowhere....luckily it happened right in front of our place, so we headed back upstairs for me to clean my wounds...
Both palms have teeny asphalt holes (try washing dishes, showering, even putting on skincare....sting!)...both my knees have scrapes...my chin has a bump (hope it won't turn black and blue) and my lip looks like I have a huge cold sore on it...
On top of that, my arms and legs are sore probably from trying to brace my fall...at least I didn't break anything and didn't need to go to the hospital...
Anyway, from our place to Muroji it is about an hour an 45 minutes by train to Muroguchiono station, then by bus another 10 minutes or so.
Luckily during this time of year they have extra buses running, so we were able to get onto one as soon as we arrived at the station.
You need to walk in a bit from the bus stop but there are some shops to look at along the way.
From the entrance to Okunoin (the farthest inside temple), you need to climb stairs...lots of them and they go pretty much straight up...
I took my time going up and held onto the skinny rails that were almost all along the way up.
I also took my time coming down as it is quite steep and didn't want to fall "again"....
Treat while we waited for the bus to come...a slightly warm, yomogi (mugwort) mochi filled with sweet bean paste.
Also during this time of year there is a bus that takes you directly from Muroji to Hasedera...luckily we were able to catch one of these...
The ride is about 50 minutes through winding roads.
Once at Hasedera, there is a huge staircase to walk up to the temple.
It is quite peaceful and beautiful from up top.
If you have some time, pay the extra 1000 yen to go inside and see the Eleven Faced Kannon, it is 10 meters tall (about 32 feet high). You can walk around it too...talk about mouth open drop jaw moment...
And from Hasedera to the station it is about a 30 minute walk.
We were glad to check out some of fall foliage, though the weather was overcast and cold.
It seems we've been thrown head first into winter...maybe those stink bugs really know something yeah?!
Saturday, after Satoshi's German class, it was the start of a 3-day weekend, so we headed to Nara to check out Ofusa Kannon's Fuurin (wind chime) Festival.
The sound of the wind chimes are supposed to evoke a "cool" feeling.
Also Buddhism believe that these wind chimes ward off evil.
This temple has many rose plants and also has a rose festival during the Spring and Autumn (which I hope we will be back to see).
I think it might be a rare thing to see western rose plants on a Buddhist temple ground.
I know when we were looking for flowers for my mom's funeral, roses (her favorite) were apparently not a good choice.
Anyway, when we got there, we went to the back of the property to their tea room in hopes of having some shaved ice.
They didn't really have a system and it was chaotic, so after being blown off and then being told they had run out of ice, we made our way to the hotel we would be staying at.
I will post about this hotel in a separate post.
(one more photo to click on to see a video I shot)
After freshening up and cooling down a bit, we went to search for dinner, we were again blown off by an apparently "reservations only" place...um, when your waitress/wife looks at us as we enter, and you, the chef/owner do the same, not even saying "irrashaimase" (welcome), not even approaching to tell us it is a "reservations only" place...we leave.
In the end, we ended up at a tiny izakaya near the station called Hiroan and the food was so good!
Yuzu cocktail thingy.
Assorted sashimi.
Okra & Nagaimo (chinese yam) salad..the shiso (perilla) dressing was super refreshing!
Ume dashi soup gyoza..I didn't care for this dish as it had a very "meaty"/gamey smell but Satoshi enjoyed it.
Perfectly cooked shrimp with homemade tartar sauce.
They didn't have those amuse bouche (things you pay for but didn't order)...whoo! so our total bill (with a beer, sake & cocktail) came out to a little over 5000 yen (which is cheap for us, usually our bill comes out to 7000 or so)
> Despite the bad service at those other places and the krazy heat & humidity, I'm glad the bulk of the day was nice.
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.
We woke early the next day as Satoshi had a lot he wanted to see.
Breakfast was chagayu (a rice porridge that is cooked in tea). We have the same type of dish in Hawaii except my grandma used to call it "chagai".
Our first stop was Kofukuji. While walking to the temple, we ran across these two male deer fighting/playing. If you click on the photo, I hope you'll be able to view the short video I shot.
While we were at Kofukuji, we visited the Eastern Golden Hall and the National Treasure Hall.
NOTE: the National Treasure Hall will be closed for all of 2017 to strengthen the building against earthquakes .
I'm glad we were able to see the artifacts housed in the National Treasure Hall.
It was nice seeing the jizo statues being "dressed" for winter.
Down the street from Kofukuji is Gangoji, a temple which was apparently the first full scale Buddhist temple to be built in Japan.
The structures on the property are not the originals, most were destroyed in fires.
While Satoshi looked at the artifacts in the hall, I had some quiet time in this walkway lined with jizo statues.
This temple is where I purchased some Juppuku tea (10 fortune tea).
If I understood the writing on the package correctly, 10 temples in Nara each have a different Jizo statue which each have different good luck wishes such as "having enough to eat", "taking away sickness", "having wisdom" to name just a few.
(We tried some of this tea on New Years Day and enjoyed it. I think if I come across this tea again, I will pick up some more.)
We then made our way to our hotel...
On our way though, we noticed a long line outside a shop.
Since it was close to lunch time, we decided to go into the shop next to the one with the long line...Kana Kana.
We both ordered the Kana Kana Gohan Plate...oyster cream croquette, carrot shiroae, daikon and greens, azuki kanten, korean nori rice, simmered konnyaku and some coffee afterwards.
The place was quite cozy and felt like we were in someone's home.
We wouldn't mind coming back to try other items on their menu as well as checking out the shop next door too.
It was nice walking through the Naramachi area with their preserved buildings.
We dropped off our bags at the hotel we would be staying at and then walked through Nara Park to Kasuga Taisha.
Along the way, we came across the "famous" deer of Nara.
It's all about the deer senbei (wafers) for these guys...
Just be careful, some get krazy...up on hind legs fighting each other for the senbei in your hand, some nudge/butt/bite/lick you...anything for that wafer...
I overheard a rickshaw driver tell his riders that the roads are colored differently to warn cars to slow down for deer.
We actually saw a couple of deer cross and cars having to stop suddenly...talk about "hold your breath" moment, eep!
Kasuga Taisha is a huge Shinto shrine, they have many lanterns that were donated by worshippers.
It was amazing to see so many!
Next to Kasuga Taisha are a couple more temples, and then we made our way down to Todaiji to see the Daibutsu (Great Buddha).
This is where we bought some deer senbei and they all zoomed in on us...
Satoshi had the most of the senbei so they were mostly following him.
His jacket got all the deer "kisses".
I was wondering why they were following him so closely...he had put the senbei into his jacket pocket...lolo (crazy)...
The young male deers with antlers were quite scary...I was afraid someone would get stabbed...still, we had lots of fun.
It had been many years since I've visited Todaiji, to see this Daibutsu will have you walking around with your mouth open and looking up in awe of it...it is really huge!
Afterwards, we were feeling a bit hungry so stopped into Tenpyoan for something sweet...
Never have we had bad service such as what we encountered at this shop.
First off, we waited for half hour for our order, only to see it being served to customers that came in AFTER we did...
And then instead of apologizing for the mix up, the waitress tried to cover up her mistake by ordering our food...STAT...
Still hungry (and a bit upset)...we walked back towards our hotel and checked out a cafe I had seen earlier...Kuuki Cake.
I had their matcha kuuki cake.
while Satoshi had their marron (chestnut) version.
Kuuki in Japanese means "air"...talk about light and fluffy! Definitely like eating air.
Dinner was again kaiseki style, not as big as the meal we had the previous night, but just right.
Another full day of walking, sight seeing and eating. The weather was fair but the wind was icy.
Kana Kana
13 Kunodo-cho
Nara, Nara
Phone: 0742.22.3214
Hours: 11:00-20:00
Closed Mondays
Hotel Wellness Asukaji
778-1 Takabatake-cho
Nara, Nara
Phone: 0742.22.2857
