When I reached Nara, I found a tourist information centre near the train station. I managed to collect quite a couple of maps and brochures there to help in planning my day.
Following the road signs and the help of the paper maps as well as Google Maps, I walked towards Nara National Park area, where several of the key attractions are found in. First stop in Kōfuku-ji, which is just at the edge of the Nara National Park. Over here, I discovered that deer seems to be the symbol of Nara and this place is filled with tons of free roaming deers. There are even people selling biscuits meant for feeding deers. And it's also amusing to see how worked up deers can get when they see people carrying those biscuits. They will even chase after them and intimidated visitors may panic and end up dropping the whole pack of biscuits at once.
I stayed around for awhile to watch the lovely deers before proceeding to the national park. I explored around the park for some time and also visited Kasuga-taisha and Todai-ji. And unsurprisingly, there were also many deers in many places.
After spending the whole morning in the attractions, I hopped on the city loop bus to Nara Kintetsu Station. I was trying to search for some of the recommended restaurants in the area but didn't have much luck. Eventually, I settled for lunch at a random restaurant and had yaki soba which costs just ¥850. Having a good meal in Japan is not always expensive after all. Even though Japan is considered to be expensive place to stay in, I feel the food and hotel costs are so much lower compared to Paris or several other European cities.
Long holidays are always tiring and tiredness sure got to me soon enough. After lunch, I didn't feel like staying in Nara and decided to head back to Osaka, and also hoping to catch a short nap on the train. Back in Osaka, I walked around Shinseikai for the rest of the afternoon and also caught a clearer glimpse of Tsūtenkaku. I also managed to try Osaka's soul food called kushikatsu, which are fried skewers of meat/mushrooms/etc. After exploring much of the district, I went to Spa World again to relax and had massage before dinner time.
After the relaxed spa session, I took a subway to Shinsaibashi. I managed to locate Yakiniku Rokko, a restaurant recommended in the tourist brochure. For ¥1,970, I get to enjoy 2 hour worth of barbeque buffet. It's definitely attractively priced with such great tasting food. For the same quality, it might possibly cost almost twice as much back home in Singapore. The set items include several types of beed, pork, chicken, lamb, innards, meat patty, sausage and also potato salad. It even includes soft drinks or a mug of beer. To end off my meal, I ordered citrus ice-cream. Just perfect. Food in Japan has never failed to impress me so far for the quality and the reasonable price, which is something lacking restaurants back home.
For more photos from Nara, follow this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment