Osaka & Nara

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Sadly this is our last Blog for Japan as after Osaka and Nara we headed up to Happo One for a few days of ski-ing, which was amazing fun but not really worth blogging about.



We had an evening in Osaka which is famous for its food and is said to be the food capital of Japan. Its two most famous dishes are blowfish (and you can see live blowfish swimming in the tanks outside most of the restaurants) and octopus ball dumplings called Takoyaki which are sold everywhere and are delicious. Osaka is often called the working heart of Japan is a modern urban city that lacks the sights of Tokyo but well worth a couple of nights, as like most Japanese cities it seems to come alive in the evening.



After Osaka we took a brief train ride to Nara which was Japan’s first real capital and boast an incredible eight Unesco World Heritage sites, most of which are contained in the large Nara Park in central Nara. The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered in Shinto to be messengers of the gods, Nara's nearly 1200 deer have become a symbol of the city and have been designated a natural treasure.



Nara is second only to Kyoto as a repository of Japan’s cultural legacy. It’s a nice place to spend the day but after dark its very quiet.

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