Blogs from Nara, Japan, Asia - page 11

Wednesday afternoon I arrived in Nara which is about 45 minutes from Kyoto. I checked into my hotel, which took a bite out of my budget, but there was absolutely nothing else available. It was raining when I got in, but I stopped in at a shop a picked up an umbrella and toured the city. They have this big dear park in Nara, where all these dear just roam about freely. There not even really fenced-in and you occasionally see them walking around on the sidewalks and the road, around temples etc. I watched as this Japanese couple tried feeding one of them, but then bascially got swarmed by a group of dear who were hiding out in the bushes. I just watched in amusement as they tried to get away but kept getting cornered ... read more

TODAY IT SNOWED!!! And properly this time! There was a leetle bit of snow the night before last (while I was ignorantly snuggled up in my futon) and a tiny bit while I was at the train station in Hirakata on the way to Nara yesterday. But today... It was awesome. I was amoung a handful of previously disadvantaged no-snow-havers who legitimately enjoyed riding my bike to school in the snow this morning. I rode with an aussie and a yank, and the yank was bewildered by our whoops of delight in the frozen weather. My concentration in class was decidedly lacking, but hey... I'm just a poor student from deepest darkest Africa (Minami Afurica to the Japanese). Statistically, I should be malnourished and uneducated. Though I'm niether of those, I am still illiterate... But that ... read more

Today I went to the ancient capital of Japan, Nara. Nara served as Japan’s capital around the 8th century. Nara does not have the number of shrines and temples of Kyoto and is not a large city but has its own charm all the same and was one of my favorite places I have visited yet. Nara is filled with parks, and these parks and the surrounding city are filled and I mean filled with deer. I went to Nara with my friend Lisa who attended USF last year as an exchange student and is great. Nara has some of the oldest shrines and temples in Japan. Our first stop was Todaiji Temple Complex, maybe the most famous in Japan. Todaiji is home to the largest wooden building in the world, the Daibutsu-den, which is ... read more

We didn't realise quite how close we were to Nara while in Osaka. Most of our journeys between places have taken around 3-4 hours and involved at least one change of train, how lucky we were this time that the local train station next to out hotel, in the middle of dodgesville, had a direct service to Nara that took 42 minutes, cash back. So we arrived here around 10am and as per usual we hit the tourist info looking for accommodation, there are two Youth Hostels here and we went for the bigger one as it's was recommended by the chic at tourist info who spoke teckle English, it's not the cheapest place we've been but we got a bed for a couple of nights and we spent next to nothing in Osaka, with hindsight ... read more

traveled with family... read more