Day 4 - Nara

We may be over jet lag. Alison did wake up briefly at 4:30am, but she went back to sleep and we slept until I got up at 6:45am. Today we got ready and met my grandparents and Ardis and Greg to get breakfast. Our hotel is adjacent to the train station so we wandered over to a bakery at the station. It was a delightful breakfast. We each had an assortment of pastries. One of the more unique pastries was a Japanese-style bun filled with sweet red bean paste and whipped cream.

After breakfast, we took a couple of cabs to our first stop - Isuien Garden. This site contains both a museum and a garden. It cost 900 yen per person to get a ticket for both. We started with the museum and I was underwhelmed. It was small and the displays were not particularly interesting. I began thinking this stop may be a bust. The garden, however, was more than worth the price of admission. We walked into the garden and my jaw dropped. It was unbelievably beautiful. The flowers and trees and water were arranged perfectly. It looked like a beautiful painting.

After the garden, we headed toward our next stop - Todaiji temple. To get there we had to walk on a road through a residential-looking area. This led us to Nara park. While we were leaving the gardens, Ardis's son, Dallin, called. They talked while we walked. This area was also beautiful. We were heading to the largest building around. As we walked we stopped to watch people. There were people painting pictures, kids playing in the park, and a small herd of Nara deer.

My grandma and Ardis talking to Dallin. He calls his mom during his Tuesday preparation day. 

Todaiji temple is a sprawling complex. The centerpiece is a large bronze buddha situated in the center of two smaller golden buddhas. My grandpa remembers visiting Nara during his mission and seeing this buddha. He never served in this area, but he visited with some members. It was fun to hear his stories while we were standing right where the stories took place. This was one of the highlights of the trip for him. He was particularly excited about the picture we were able to get of all 6 of us in front of the Buddha.

We took a bathroom break right outside Todaiji temple. My grandparent's found a shady spot to wait for the rest of us. While they were waiting they were approached by a couple of Japanese schoolgirls who needed to interview some foreigners for a school project. They had a great little interaction with my grandpa speaking a little Japanese and some English. People here often seem surprised to hear my grandpa speak some Japanese and it seems like the language is coming back to him a little bit. Every day he seems more confident and talks to more people.

My grandparents being interviewed by some Japanese students

Our plan for the rest of the day was to visit some of the many shrines and temples situated throughout the park. Nara park is huge and sprawling and is one of the oldest parks in Japan - established officially in 1880. One of the features of this park is the herd of free-roaming deer (I read there are at least 1,200). They are primarily tame, although we saw firsthand that they can get a little aggressive when they see you will feed them shika senbei, special crackers for deer that are sold for 150 yen. My grandpa got a hoot when one deer was biting/butting my grandma to try to get all of her crackers. This was another highlight of the day. We had fun feeding the deer. My grandpa also gave away a couple of rice crispy treats and a cone from his green tea ice cream to some lucky deer. One of the interesting things we saw was some Japanese people teaching deer throughout the park to bow. We saw one little girl, who was 4 or 5, she would hide the crackers behind her back. She would then bow to the deer. When the deer bowed back she would pull off the piece of cracker and give it to the deer. It was very cute.

My grandma found a sign warning about the same type of behavior one deer exhibited toward her. 

We visited Nigatsu-do Hall located on the hill beside Todaiji. This complex provided beautiful views of Nara park and was an interesting shrine. Nara park is very hilly with many winding walkways and a variety of trail surfaces - pavement, dirt, and gravel. All of this made pushing the wheelchair an adventure. We all took turns and sometimes when the gravel was particularly bumpy my grandpa would decide to walk. Despite any challenges we had we were able to get him to most places we were visiting. He decided not to climb up the stairs to Nigatsu-do Hall, instead my grandparents found a little place to eat ice cream and wait for us.

Next, we hiked up more hills in search of a noodle place to get some lunch. Unfortunately by the time we arrived, they were closed for lunch. We have been somewhat bad with our meals the last couple of days - last night we missed dinner and today we missed lunch. We decided today to just keep moving - we all ate a really big breakfast, had some ice cream for a snack, and my grandpa bought a sandwich at breakfast that he saved and ate for lunch. It was also only 4 more hours until we planned to eat dinner anyway.

Our next stop was Kasugataisha shrine. The shrine halls’ bright vermillion columns, white walls, and roofs of hinoki cypress bark contrast beautifully with the green of the surrounding woods. This shrine is particularly famous for its many stone and bronze lanterns. There were so many lanterns, many of which had pictures of deer carved into the sides. The deer are believed to be messengers of the gods and are revered here.

These students wanted to get a picture with Alison and Ardis. I think they were intrigued by the blonde and curly hair. 

We then walked across Nara park. It was a beautiful walk. As a bonus since we spent most of the day making our way uphill it was mostly downhill now. Our destination was Kofukuji Temple. It is a large Buddhist temple (that burned down and has been reconstructed) as well as a Pagoda and a smaller temple. My grandpa looked around and quickly decided he thought the Pagoda was the most interesting aspect of this complex so he found a shady place he could sit and take it in while we all explored the rest of the complex. He made friends with a Japanese woman who is Christian and told her about how he served his mission in Japan. We wandered through the temple and learned about the hand signs of the various Buddha statues.

We had one more stop planned and we were trying to go as slowly as possible. Alison planned for us to have dinner at Nino's - the top-rated restaurant in Nara on trip adviser, but it did not open until 6pm. We had some time. Our last stop of the day was the Nara Prefectural Office. This is a late 1960s office building that has free tourist access to the rooftop. It is one of the taller buildings in Nara providing 360-degree panoramic views of the city and park. It was awesome and completely worth the stop. We relaxed on the rooftop taking in the views and having a nice conversation. We stayed until they kicked us out at 5:30pm.

We then walked to our dinner location at slowly as possible. My grandpa was ready to walk after sitting all day. He was outpacing all of us. At one point we tried hiding behind a building, but he kept walking and did not look back. After he crossed a road we decided we better keep moving and caught up with him. We also stopped at a local 7-eleven to replenish our supply of yen. 7-eleven ATMs are the best place to use foreign debit cards in Japan.

Dinner was at Nino's. It is an Italian restaurant. I was skeptical of eating at an Italian place in Japan, but it was so highly rated, and my grandma was ready for a meal where she could find something familiar on the menu. This place turned out to be a great experience. Mostly because we got to experience some incredible Japanese hospitality. The sign warned the food would be slow and they were not lying. We were at Nino's for a little over 2 hours. Alison and I were both very hungry. We each ordered a medium pasta (tomato and mozzarella for Alison and carbonara for me). We also ordered a large Margarita pizza to share. It was good we ordered a lot of food - we ate it all. My grandpa ordered a small pizza, but only took a couple of bites. The crust was not as hard as in the US and the cheese/toppings were kind of oily and runny. The cheese on his particular pizza also had a very strong flavor that he did not like. When he told the staff he would not eat the pizza they brought him a tomato and mozzarella pasta (which he very much enjoyed, minus the one small hot pepper that was hidden among the tomatoes). He was very surprised by the pepper and became a little more cautious with each bite after that. Before we left we met the owner of the restaurant. He traveled to Italy for a year to learn how to cook and then took a big risk by opening an Italian place in Japan. It is unlike any other Japanese food. He presented us with a handwritten frame with each of our names in Japanese conga. He also took a picture with us and printed a copy for each of us (they also emailed it to Alison). They also gave us free dessert. They had a piece of paper written in English that explained they give free dessert for birthdays, but since we could not come back to this restaurant for our birthday they wanted to give us each one today. The owner also gave us a lucky coin (5 yen) as we left the story. The food was fine last night, and the hospitality and experience were exceptional.

After dinner picked up our bags at our hotel and took a train to Kyoto. Getting from the train station was a little bit of a rodeo. We split into two groups and I went with my grandparents in an international cab. This cabbie was great he knew our location as soon as we told him and took us there by the fastest route. It seemed a little sketchy at first because it was through all of these random ally ways, but it turned out to be the most direct route. Our hotel is on a pedestrian-only street. He got us as close as he could, parked his cab, and walked us to our hotel. Japanese hospitality is the best. Meanwhile, Ardis, Greg, and Alison are trying to get another international cab, but no one is coming. Finally, they get a local cab that takes a while longer and was significantly more expensive. Turns out international cabs may be the better choice in Kyoto. Either way, we are here and ready for our next adventure.