http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Japan , Nara en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:17:01 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:17:01 +0000 Sixth day Nara http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-440474.html Go to Umeda Station and take the train to Nara explore Nara Park and the temples. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-439054.html Typhoon in Tokyo. Stay in Kyoto another day. Visit nearby Nara. Old building. Friendly deer eat Jun. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-435174.html Aya arranged for us to have lunch with an American English teacher today. It was such a great opportunity for me to learn about teaching English in Japan as well as Taiwan I am really happy that she arranged it. His name is Jeff he is twentyseven years old and he is from Sacramento He is currently her younger brotherrsquos middle school English teacher and he has been teaching in Japan for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-428303.html Nara the ancient capital city of Japan has many world heritage sites. I've visited most of the places on my first visit here three years ago. This time I came mainly to see the lights festival happening during Obon week. Ben and I took a day trip to Nara at noon and wondered around the city until darkness arrived. Then more than 10000 candles started to light up the whole place giving it a fe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-427963.html I woke up at 800 PM and after half an hour of stumbling around and getting changed I finally left the hostel. As I walked past the Station to the Ryokan I met Riddhi who said he was off to Hiroshima for a couple of days to meet a friend of his. Surprised I wished him well in his endeavour and headed off to the hostel wondering whether I'd see him alive again. I met Simon and Kunal at the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-425655.html We were off to a slow start this morning. We had such a big day yesterday the motivation to move was low. We headed down to the station and bought some bakery items. We ate this on the train trip to Nara which took 45 minutes from Kyoto on the JR line. It was another hot and humid day today summer in Japan. I think it was hotter than yesterday. When we got to Nara I could not find the bicyc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-415399.html Following our adventure in Hiroshima we made our way west to the ancient city of Nara Japan's first capital. This as I said is a very ancient city home to the world's oldest wooden standing structure. The city is home to many UNESCO World Heritage Sites many including the temples and shrines.The first day in Nara was a free day for us to explore and wreak havoc just kidding lol. Anyways w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-405548.html First day of Golden WeekI met the other students at the usual spot at 830am sharp There were 9 of us altogether. It took a good hour to get to Nara costing about 750 yen one way. One of the people in our group had been to Nara before so he showed us all the good spots. Once we arrived we got maps and went to the nearest conbini to buy drinks and snacks. So glad I did that because the further in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-395813.html After a relatively short journey from Kyoto i arrive in Nara fairly early on the Thursday morning. I am excited to be hre. Nara is Japan's oldest most traditional city. It is home to many templesshrinesparks deer. I take my stuff to the guesthouse grab a map n immediately set off to the park. The park has over 7 temples various woodland areas numerous shrines museums and wildlife. The w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-394206.html On Sunday I used my 4 day Kansai train pass to go to Nara. Kansai is the region surounding Osaka and Kyoto etc. I decided to follow a walking tour shown in the lonely planet so I wandered up to NaraKoen which is a big park in this city. Incidentally I did see some farm land on this train trip not just bumper to bumber buildingsThe park is full of dear and visitors are allowed to feed them with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-370261.html Nara prefecture. Nara Temples. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-349686.html The upside of leaving Kagoshima sooner than we thought was getting back on the superb Shinkansen. After that we had a beautiful ride up through the mountains to Takayama. Here we booked ourselves into Zenkoji temlpe run by the very enigmatic Tommy. Our first night was in the temple hall which was a unique but chilly experience. Takayama is a picturesque town with historic wooden buildings and gor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-348404.html We had a nice day trip from Kyoto to Nara to see the Todaiji Temple and the deers that casually roam around the city. We had a great time. Our first stop was the 100 Yen store to pick up some healthy snacks for the deer. We were not too sure what they would like so we got some peanuts and some chips. Well... the peanuts sure did the trick. When we got closer to the parks in Nara we ran int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-330338.html Pretty exhuasted at the moment so hopefully this entry wont be too random today... Been walking around Kyoto today going to check out the older part of the city tonight maybe catch a Geisha sighting or two.. Nara is both one of the more beautiful cities in Japan I've visited as well as the friendliest. The train to Nara is a pretty small line.. .at times only one track so the other train ne http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-327688.html One must take oneself to Nara so that one can see the largest Buddha in Japan housed in the largest wooden structure in Japan. To that end Samia Rachel and I set off for Nara another ancient capital of Japan. It was only the capital for about 70 years but it is considered the birthplace of Japanese civilization. Many temples and works of art dating from the 7th 8th centuries still survive http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-322557.html Old news Never. Nara is a beautiful area to walk through with deer nuzzling you for food and on occasion chasing you down the street. I had deer's noses poking into my pockets for cookies and one of them bit me on the bumI took Danilo to see the Daibutsu great Buddha at Todaiji The worlds largest wooden building. It is a suitably impressive place and some of the buildings you pass l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-312636.html Nara was an easy day trip on the shinkansen from Kyoto. Most of the important sights are in an area called Narakoen which is home to hundreds of supposedly wild Deer. Deer are considered sacred and are believed to be messengers from the gods and so are treated with upmost respect. You can even buy crackers to feed to them which Dan thought was a brilliant idea....until he was surrounded by http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-298699.html The 45 minute train ride through glum suburbia on a dull day did not give rise to any confidence in a revealing and pleasant day. But that is very much the end result we had. We enjoyed Nara by foot taking in the Kofukuji and Gangoji temples. Then a wedding at the spectacular kasuga Taisha shrine that has thousands of stone and iron lanterns. Here we saw a bride being maticulously prepared http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-280153.html We took a train from Osaka to Nara which is Japans old capital...Its a really lovely place but you can see from the pictures that it was peeing it down just for a change..Most of the sights are in the park which has loads of old temples which are amazing plus the biggest Budha in Japan which is 16m high...we just missed the president of China by a few hours although we didnt realise. The templ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-275362.html