Life with MK: Nara

Today was our day to explore the city of Nara, Japan. Nara was briefly the capital of Japan before Kyoto and later Tokyo. It is a smaller city in Japan, but it was a great experience. We began with a delicious breakfast at the Ryokan again and then got ready to leave for the day. Had I known the amount of walking would be so much more than yesterday I would have worn my more comfortable shoes, but I did not, so now my knees and feet are all killing me. Oh well, live and learn. Anyways, back to Nara.

We took the subway train to meet Kazue and then the four of us took a different train for the 40 minutes out to Nara. The train ride was easy and nothing too exciting. We got there without any problems and set off to explore all of the sites within Nara Park. The coolest thing about Nara is that there are literally deer everywhere, and I really mean everywhere. They are very calm and used to people and you can buy deer crackers to feed them straight out of your hand. It was awesome. While at Nara we went to a bunch more temples and shrines and they were all beautiful. The wisteria also happen to be in bloom this week, and they were absolutely amazing to see. I have never seen wisteria before, but I definitely love them already. We wandered around Nara for hours and had a great time seeing the beautiful structures and even saw the biggest Buddha in Japan standing (or sitting rather) around 4 stories tall! The Buddah also sits in the biggest wooden structure in the world. It was all quite impressive. After the shrines and temples we saw a beautiful garden that reminded me of the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco a bit. All in all it was a really nice day, but I was exhausted by the end of it.

After seeing Nara we took the train back to Kyoto and went to the shopping area. They had a ton of bizarre stores along with stores I recognize like Gap, Starbucks, Clarks, etc. It was fun to browse even though we didn't buy anything. We also walked through the market area which was fun to see. My dad and I got fresh squeezed grapefruit juice that was juiced right in the rind with a special machine and served inside the rind with a straw. It was so ridiculous cool and so so yummy! Definitely a highlight even though it was such a small thing.

After strolling through the market we walked home to the Ryokan and had a light snack and chatted/rested for a bit before dinner. Tonight we had dinner here at the Ryokan again and it was very good. A few courses, starting with a sushi style course, then a fish course, a tempura course, and finally dessert. The tempura was my favorite for sure, tough it was all pretty good. Now that dinner is over I am so ready for bed. It may be just 9pm, but I am ready to sleep! It doesn't help that I took a Benadryl just before dinner due to my ritual traveling abroad rash that reared its head today. So its off to sleep! Hope I don't wake up too early. I'm in need of some deep sleeping time!