Kyoto - Nara - Osaka

 Today we checked out of our Kyoto hostel and took a train to Nara, which was the first 'permanent' capital of Japan from 710-794. Nara in Japanese means deer, and it shows, there are hundreds of deer walking around the main park in Nara. The deer are trained to bow to you for food, vendors sell crackers specifically to feed to them. Some deer were very good at bowing, some just slightly moved their head and expected crackers. It was a great experience getting that close to these big creatures, we even got to pet them because they were so  well domesticated.

    The other big draw of Nara was the Todaiji temple, which was started in 738 (finished 752) and holds one of the biggest statues of Buddha in Japan. Creating the statue was such a big task that a majority of the city was involved in some aspect of building it. Inside the temple there is a hole in one of the support columns which is said to grant you luck if you can crawl through it. It was way too small for me, but the people volunteering to try were mostly little children. Here’s the temple and some pictures of the inside.

    After seeing the temple itself, we also got to see a museum of artifacts involved with it. Once we got our fill of information we searched the endless tents of food that were there for Constitution Memorial Day. We decided on yakisoba, it was pretty good but it was incredibly cheap and not that much food. After eating we walked back towards the train station and my dad found a brewery, which I don’t care that much about but they had salmon cream cheese pizza which was surprisingly tasty, and rounded out the meal we started in Nara.

    Then we took the train to Osaka and checked in to our hotel. We had to leave quickly to get to the aquarium before they closed. The aquarium was a little pricey but it was worth it, so many amazing sea creatures and very informative. I didn’t feel the same sadness that the zoo induced in me, I feel like aquariums create the environment these animals belong in better than zoos do, with more space and other animals to interact with.

    On the way out we saw this giant Ferris wheel lighting up the night sky. This was only the beginning of night lights in Osaka.

    We took a train over to Dotonbori, which is like Osakas version of Times Square with a canal down the middle. I wonder how many people were there just to look at the lights because the bridge over the canal was contested from people taking pictures.

    We explored the area and ended up getting some okonomiyaki, which is a savory pancake usually with shredded cabbage, green onions, noodles, eggs, some kind of meat, mayo, and a special okonomiyaki sauce. Okonomiyaki translates to Okonomi (what you like) yaki (fried). Its meant to be a whole meal layered together and fried on a flat top grill. Osaka and Hiroshima have a rivalry over who makes it better, like different states in the US have a rivalry over who makes the best pizza. The difference between Osaka and Hiroshima okonomiyaki is pretty simple, Osaka okonomiyaki has all the ingredients mixed in with the pancake dough, while Hiroshima okonomiyaki has all the ingredients in layers on top of the pancake dough. I thought the Osaka okonomiyaki was pretty good, but we got it from a street vendor, and I think it would have been better if we got it from a brick and mortar restaurant but I'm not sure. After chowing down we took a train back to the hotel and rested up for the next day.