We woke up late partly because we were tired the previous day and partly because the bed was sooo comfortable.
It was really cold that day, about 3 degrees Celsius if I remember right. So cold that even the guesthouse staff was shivering and saying さむい (samui), meaning 'cold'. We left the guesthouse at around 10am and walked about 10mins to the nearest JR train station. We passed by a park and the Nijo Castle.
I started to shiver and had to put on my gloves while walking. Thankfully, my mom was feeling warm enough. We were going to Kyoto station and transfer trains going to Nara, but I had to buy another layer of clothing or better yet, another jacket coz what I had wasn't enough to keep me warm. We went out of Kyoto station to go to Uniqlo as recommended by the train station staff. I bought a jacket and decided to have lunch at Mcdonald's before heading to Nara.
Kyoto station
Kyoto station's awesome structure
Lunch at Mcdonald's
Afterwards, we went on a day trip to Nara. Nara is the old capital of Japan, even before Kyoto. This is one lovely, quiet town with lots of traditional shops/buildings. When one say Nara, one might automatically think of free wandering deers. Yes, free wandering deers. They're harmless, or atleast they were when we were there. I saw other tourists feeding the deer so I decided to buy deer crackers from one of the stalls along the road. As soon as I stepped away from the stall, I was mobbed by the deers. There was some feeding, some nibbling and a bit screaming. Lol.
Warning!
Just past the deer park was the Nandaimon, the great southern gate of Todai-ji. This gate was watched over by two guardians known as Ni-ō (two kings).
Agyo - open mouthed expression
Ungyo - closed mouthed expression
Nandaimon
Todai-ji is the world's largest wooden building and it houses one of Japan's largest bronze buddha. It was awesome to stand in front of this big buddha. A lot of people were lighting incense and candles and were praying. Behind this big buddha, there were a couple of big 'hands of buddha', miniatures of the daibutsu-do and other statues in display. There was also a store that sells souvenirs and other stuff. I bought some, of course.
Torii by the lake. What a pretty sight!
Todai-ji. World's largest wooden building
Daibutsu of Nara. Largest bronze buddha statue in the world.
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Since we arrived in the afternoon, the only other place we were able to visit was Nigatsu-dō. My mom didn't enter since it involved stairs and she was a bit tired already. It was overlooking the city of Nara and it was one of the peaceful moments I had in our trip since it was already late and there were not a lot of tourists around. I almost had the place to myself.
The path going back was scenic. I don't know why, but it reminded me of one of the scenes in the movie Rurouni Kenshin. Haha!
We bought some more souvenirs before boarding the bus to Nara station and headed back to Kyoto.
what a pretty quaint town
cute deer design on the bus seat ^_^
matching scarves
busy Kyoto station
Kyoto tower at night
We went back to Kyoto Yodobashi for some more shopping and looked for a place to eat dinner. Of course, I had to look for a restaurant that offers something my mom can and likes to eat. We went to a random alley that has a lot of restos just beside Kyoto Yodobashi, checked the menus outside the restaurants and saw one that offers rice, fried shrimp, sushi, sashimi, etc. Yummy! I splurged a bit for this dinner. I even ordered white wine that left me tipsy. Woah! That was strong. Perfect way to end the day.
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