“Hey! I have an idea! Let’s go to Nara!” So yes, we played hooky today, and went to Nara to hang out with deer instead of doing school work!
On our way to the train station, we passed the house that makes me smile every single time, because it has such a flourishing little sidewalk garden, and a shower curtain garage. At one point, at the very beginning of our stay here, I walked by and spotted a single rose on one of the plants in this garden. Even took a picture of it, and maybe possibly shared it on a previous blog? But thought this might be my last chance to share it with you, so here it is, in all its glory:
Every once in a rare while, we get lucky and get to sit on the deer train. This is the train that inspired the keychain that hangs on my backpack, and of course as we set sail for Nara, the deer train stops to pick us up. Maybe that’s what made us get on a train that was not the one Google Maps told us to wait for? Goodle Maps told us to wait another 13 minutes, but who can resist such a cute train?
Half way to Nara, we get kicked off the train. Last stop, the conductor says, as he walks through the train, shooing all us foreigners off the train. So then we stood at a random platform, and I made my group wait for the right train. The other tourists hopped on the very next train, and I knew that meant they’d have to switch trains AGAIN before reaching Nara, so this time, we waited.
We finally made it to Nara, and if I thought they had photo ops only on the train, I was very, very wrong!
I lead the gang on a trek down towards the mochi pounders, and there’s no mochi pounding going on. We purchase some mochi, green tea mochi with a red bean filling, rolled in roasted soybean flour. The mochi has a salty flavour to it, but so fresh, so soft, and warm. Because there’s no action at the mochi pounding station, we keep on walking.
We head up towards the nearest shrine, and there are a bunch of stairs. There’s also quite a bit of deer poop, but so far, no deer.
The shrine and surroundings are beautiful, but I cannot call it a peaceful place. Tourists everywhere. The main pagoda is being renovated, so they have wrapped the entire tower in what now looks like a giant, grey grain silo.
Around the corner of this shrine, just past that slanted roof on the right, we meet our first deer. The girls are very nervous, as we watch some deer get aggressive with tourists who have deer crackers, but just aren’t being as fast in the delivery as they’d like. We also see the deer nibbling on whatever looks tasty, be it jackets, purses, backpacks, scarves…
Joe has decided we’re going to go see the Big Buddha, so we make our way towards the Todai-ji temple area. On our way there, I spot the world’s most useful pickup truck, and immediately snap a picture to show my North American friends:
We’re about half way to the temple, when Joe sees a restaurant with a line. We’ve learned that Japanese people love lining up when things are worth waiting for, so he immediately wants to eat here. It’s about time for lunch, so we eagerly agree. It’s 11.30am, and we are soon in the middle of the line. Problem is, we haven’t moved, but the line has grown. It takes about 50 minutes for us to move from our spot in the sun to the front door, and when we get to walk through the magical front door, it’s into another waiting area with chairs…
We get seated, and our food is served. The server has an intricate system for taking everyone’s orders while they’re in line outside, so once you are seated, the food is served immediately!
The total experience from we lined up until we reemerged into daylight was 90 minutes. We ponder if we should inform the liners uppers about our estimate for their wait time…
Right next door, there’s another photo op. Ever seen an ice cream dressed up as a deer?
The temple area is teeming with deer. And tourists. And locals with deer crackers in hand. And tourists who are so spooked by the forward deer that they literally throw the crackers at the animals and run in the opposite direction.
The gate half way up the temple path is solid wood, unpainted, and has a giant step in the middle. Is it to keep the deer out? I don’t think so, the sides are open, and it doesn’t seem high enough to keep any animals out.
This beautiful red gate is the front gate of the temple. It is is a solid fence now, the doors have been blocked to force visitors through a ticket gate around the west gate. Since Joe doesn’t want to actually buy tickets to visit the temple, this is as close as we are going to get to the Big Buddha.
We may not have seen the Big Buddha, and we may have had an overdose of deer interactions today, so we start heading back towards the main streets and train station. On our way back, we find decorative manhole covers:
We walk through cute little market streets, and I find my new clock:
We stop for a snack at a café:
On our way back to the station, there’s once again a crowd outside the mochi pounding place. We miss the first show because we’re too far back to see what’s going on, but once the layers of onlookers peel off, we move forward, and have front row seats (stands?) to the next show. I tell you, the expression “breakneck speed” comes from watching the two guys pounding and stretching this dough!
At one point in our stroll through the market streets, Joe points to a little hole in the wall and says “you can try gluten free chocolate cake in there”, so of course the girls and I head in! It wasn’t just any old gluten free chocolate cake though, he sold slices, 1/4, 1/2 and full loaves of these. There were six different flavours to choose from, out of which we tasted four and bought three. Téa picked mint, Maylin picked roasted soybean flour, and I went with original.
We make it home after dark, and Joe makes a quick dinner of salmon (yummy Japanese style salted salmon) with rice and stir fried veggies. For dessert, the chocolate cakes we bought earlier. Before bed, we had a family Mario Kart race, and I lost with impressive margins, as usual. All is as it should be!
I absolutely would like to see the video of the pounding mochi. Also, the salted salmon sounds very interesting. Do you think I can find it here? I would love to be wandering among those deer.
I don’t know if they sell it in stores at home, but if there’s a Japanese restaurant you like, I’d ask the chef. They should know what I mean! I’ll send you the mochi pounding video now!