Day 4 – My Trip to Japan

  Posted on June 8, 2014  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

Day 4 – My Trip to Japan

At the ryokan, we opted for the traditional Japanese breakfast. You can get a western style breakfast, but why would you do that? There was freshly squeezed Yuzu juice, pickled vegetables, Miso cod, Shishito peppers (my favorite!), etc. Exquisite is how I would describe it.

After breakfast we took an hour train ride to Nara to see the Todaiji Temple, which was built in the Nara period (710 – 794 AD). The main object of worship of the temple is Vairocana Buddha (“Buddha that shines throughout the world like the sun”), which is the largest buddha in the world. Todaiji Temple serves both as a place of prayer for peace and affluence on earth, as well as the center of Buddhist doctrinal research.

The temple is located in Nara Park, which is a large park in central Nara. Established in 1880, it is the location of many of Nara’s main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum.

The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered in Shinto to be messengers of the gods, Nara’s nearly 1200 deer have become a symbol of the city and have been designated a natural treasure.

Nara’s deer are surprisingly tame, although they can be rather aggressive if they think you will feed them. Deer crackers are for sale around the park, and some deer have learned to bow to visitors asking to be fed. This, of course, creates a land mine of deer poop! Watch your step!

We then had some tonkatsu curry near the train station in Nara. It was even more tender and delicious than the pork we had at Mitsukoshi.

After a wonderful trip, the bullet train deposited us back in Tokyo. Exhausted–and yet amazingly hungry for dinner–we picked up some snacks at Queen’s Isetan at Shinagawa Station (that has a Harrod’s Boutique right inside the door) to eat back in our hotel room. The selection of ready to eat food was amazing–like Trader Joe’s and Marks & Sparks on steroids! And so to bed….