Day 10

nara & osaka

legend

✴️ = best choice!

part one

the romantic nara

After replicating yesterday’s breakfast, we return to Kyoto Station to take a JR Nara line train to Nara Station.

Nara is a wonderful town, very green and characterized by the presence of small deer that inhabit the park. Has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Enjoy this natural scenery: if you wish to make friends with deer, just buy the crackers they are fond of, for sale along the road.

Passing through the park you will also reach the Kasuga Taisha shrine and Todaiji Temple, where there is a bronze statue of the Great Buddha. not far away you will find this relaxing pond where many carp swim undisturbed. ✴️

The JR Nara line is served by two types of trains:

The local ones, which take about 70 minutes.
The rapid ones (Hiyakoji rapid train), which take 48 minutes.

Both pass frequently. Check the schedules on Navitime.

Here you can download the map of Nara.

what we ate

For lunch, Takoyaki, from Takoyaki Hachibe: really good!

For dessert, the very famous yomogi mochi from Nara.
You can watch their preparation, which is done by hitting the dough hard with a large hammer, right here where we bought them! ✴️

glossary

Mochi
Mochi are soft treats filled with anko, the red azuki bean jam. The dough, on the other hand, is made of a special glutinous rice that, in the case of the store mentioned earlier, is enhanced by the addition of mugwort, a plant that gives the green coloring!

Takoyaki
Octopus meatballs

hours and costs

Todaiji Temple
Access costs 600 yen.
It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from April to October, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from November to March.

part two

osaka -- touch and go

Back at the station, we take a train on the JR Yamatoji line to Osaka Namba station.

From here, it is only a 12-minute walk to our hotel: the Agora Place Osaka Namba. Highly recommended for location, just two minutes from the Dotombori district-the most famous in Osaka, somewhat less so for cleanliness (below Japanese standards).

After strolling along the district streets, we decide to have dinner at Sushi Kaminari. The place is typical and nice and the sushi good but more expensive than usual. To be honest, we have eaten better at a lower price.

The real treat is the tiny, super-cool bar that is right across the street! ✴️

Here we met an American pilot who, between gin and tonics and sake, told us his life story.

With this excuse, we drank a lot … tomorrow will be a looooong day!

Did you know that in some places in Japan the sake glass is placed in a box, called masu, and poured until it overflows into this?

Obviously as a sign of hospitality and welcome! One then drinks the entire contents of the glass plus whatever is left in the masu.

Not only sake: they also make great gin in Japan! The most famous is Roku, but we recommend that you try the niche ones as well.