We got up early to catch the bus from Nagoya to Nara. Nara isn't too far away from Nagoya but it took longer than expected to get to Nara because it was snowing on the way there, which slowed us down quite a bit.
We finally arrived in Nara at 11 am and met up with Yoshi at Nara Station. We went to get an early lunch and made our way to the deer park. I was glad to see Yoshi again even though I had just met him the month before. He took us to a nice cafe for lunch but I couldn't finish my meal even though it was good because it had too much cream.
I was really surprised at the number of deer there were at the park. Most people were feeding them but we didn't buy the deer senbei because the deer will come up to you anyway.
Sweet potato!
Yoshi always seems to be so happy, haha.
After the deer park, Yoshi suggested that we check out the temple nearby because there was a giant Buddha in there that was bigger than the one in Kamakura. I used to think the one in Kamakura was huge until I visited Nara.
Even though the temple was crowded with tourists, it wasn't too bad. At least, not as bad as Tokyo. We moved around quite easily and had enough time to check out everything without getting annoyed. We went to another smaller temple after that and the view of Nara was really pretty from there.
Cutest baby deer and protective mama deer.
It was still early when we were done visiting the temples so Yoshi took us to his favourite shrine which was less than an hour's drive away. It started to snow again once we got out of his van. I wanted to appreciate the shrine more but it was freezing in there more than outside, I just couldn't. The pillars had really pretty old Japanese paintings on them and even though the paint have eroded with time, you can still see some of the details.
Yoshi went to meet up with some of his friends who had a furniture workshop less than 5 minutes away after that. Workshops of any kind always remind me of my days in art college. I'm always scared of the machines because of the horror stories my lecturers and friends would tell me. (Yes, I have a small heart -__-)
We went to chill at a cafe after driving back to Nara Station. I was so tired by this time because I couldn't get enough sleep for the past two nights before getting to Nara I felt bad for keeping quiet. My brain just shuts off but I was glad to talk to Yoshi about some art related stuff. It was hard to explain in Japanese but I think I tried my best.
The cafes in Nara all had a little deer next to their logos, how cute!
We got on the train to Kyoto at almost 7 pm and went to get dinner before heading to our Airbnb apartment. It was a really fun but tiring day. I have never seen that many deer in my life. I don't think I will be visiting Nara again anytime soon because the one place I wanted to go to the most, Nara Dreamland, has been torn down.
At least, I can tick off another place in Japan. I'm still pretty unsure about my travel plans this year in the land of the rising sun but I think I will be visiting places near Nagoya. I really want to go to Lake Biwa because of how pretty it is and hopefully I'll get the chance to when the weather gets warmer.
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