Day 8: Nara Deerest

DID: Slept in a bit, then hit the train for Nara. 45 minutes from Kyoto. Someone had the bright idea of creating a park around the temples rather than letting all the space get filled in. Made for a much more pleasant (although admittedly less informative) day of wandering around the temples. Lots of semi-domesticated wildlife for the boys to feed (ritz crackers and ice cream cones [sans the ice cream of course]) including deer, turtles and carp. Very pretty walking paths through small gardens, pagodas, small ponds and a few big temples.
Attempted to do laundry at a coin-op place the hotel recommended but after walking for nearly 30 minutes, we arrived only to find that all TWO washers were two minutes into a 60 minute cycle. Grrrr. Abandoned that effort and went to find dinner.

ATE: Pastries from a Japanese bakery (Sizkuya?) in central station. Jason’s bun tasted like pancakes complete with maple syrup. Mine was a sweet sugar bun of sorts, the boys had sweet buns with hot dogs in the middle. Lunch: Nara street food. Sushi variety pack including a specialty of Nara which is sushi wrapped in a leaf. Also doughy octopus balls. Soft serve ice cream outside the temple for a snack. Dinner: Made a valiant attempt to go to find another street that we liked as well as the one we’ve eaten on the last two nights but came up empty – and thank goodness. We ate at a noodle shop across from the place we ate at the night before. Here’s how it goes. Tiny door that was built for someone Gavin’s size. Walk down long dimly lit but open air hallway to a vending machine. Enter your order, pay,  get tickets (and in our case, rely on chef to provide English translation). Wait in zen garden for spots at the counter to open. Go inside, give chef tickets. 5 minutes later, amazing noodle soup with fresh ramen and pork served. Broth tasted like liquid bacon, one guess as to who was in complete heaven. After we left the chef ran out to give the boys some Japanese candies. ☺ Stuffing ourselves silly with bananas as they are only $3/kg as opposed to $14/kg at home. Learned that bananas and ritz crackers make a nice combo (kind of like banana and crispix cereal without the milk.)

OBSERVATIONS: Cool things at the hotel: 1. There is a small square in the bathroom mirror which does not fog up while you take a shower. 2. You can double-click the buttons in the elevator to cancel a floor that has been pressed by mistake (or intentionally by a toddler). Kyoto in general: 1. walking is very precarious. Sidewalks, if present, are shared with cyclists. Sometimes you just have to walk within a white line painted on the side of the road. Sometimes the roads are so narrow it’s very easy to (incorrectly) assume it’s pedestrian/cyclist only until you are nearly run down by a car. 2. Cars are skinnier and possibly taller than cars at home. 3. While things are very beautiful at a micro-scale (ie the small gardens, plates of food, paper fans, etc), I’m struggling to find charm in the big picture/landscape. Maybe this will change once we leave the city.