Right. Going to try and blog before my next holiday!! That’s right, another holiday series is coming up!

Saturday 6th April 2019

Free day! Yay!! Start off with breakfast at the hotel with convenience store food. Cold coffee, sandwich (egg and tuna separated sandwiches) and a sort of cold French toast. 😊

In the itinerary from Bamba Experience, it suggested that I could go to Nara for the day or spend a day in Kyoto – so I decided, in the must-go-to tourist site – Nara!

Nara is known for their deer. They like to bite and nag people for deer biscuits. First thing I did was get on the train from my hotel to Kyoto Station and changed for the next train to Nara. It’s best if you go really early – がんばって！！ It took about an hour and a half to get to Nara. The outside view is spectacular… you actually get to see more bamboo forests which are not tourist attractions.

From Nara Station, I followed the signs to Nara Park, and thankfully a bus driver saw me, and was willing to wait for me… jog, jog, jog to the bus (forgot the bus number, but it’s on the opposite side of the circular stops). You can use your ICOCA card here! Woohoo!

After three of four stops, I got off, crossed the road, and entered Nara Park. I could already see a small amount of deer roaming around the entrance. I bought some deer biscuits but didn’t give any away at this point.

The deer biscuits smell like coffee.

Walked around Nara Park. It wasn’t too busy at this point.

Finally crossed over another part of Nara Park and met more deer… I fed this one a few biscuits.

And then more deer came! I had to hold my hands up and shout “nai ない”… Not sure why I said that, I think I wanted the deer to understand I had no more biscuits. I think they understood, because they stopped approaching me. LOL! 😆

After being tormented by hungry deer, I walked a bit more around the park…

Feel like deer enjoy people taking pics of their butts. 🤣

More sightseeing…

And then I decided to enter one of the popular temples in Nara. Todai-ji, opened in 728 AD. That’s over 2000 years ago! Wow, and it still stands here today!

MummyGeek informed my brother Mr Stingy to tell me to burn some incense, and make sure to go and bow to all the temples I go to – for good fortune and happiness. So I burned some incense. The big incense on the bottom right is my incense. Make sure to give a donation before you burn your incense!

Went inside the temple and took some pictures – I think you’re allowed to take pictures here, I wasn’t stopped.

Back out into the open… And more pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms

I sat in a pagoda watching over a pond as did many tourists from Korea and China and others… One deer decided to go for a dip in the pond.

Then back to the main tourist part. Shopkeepers will leave out buckets of water for the deer.

As the late tourists flocked in, I decided to buy a Sakura flavoured ice cream. It’s not too sweet. A bit of cherry and yam mixed… Hard to describe.

I only spent half a day in Nara, but if you’re in a bigger group, you might want to stay a bit longer. As I was a lone traveller, I think I only needed half the time… On my way back, I took a bus halfway, then walked back the rest of the way to the station… 

Back in Kyoto Station… I took a loo stop in the bus stop area as the queue in the station was too long. Then I ate at Hoshino Cafe suggested by a friend who lives in Malaysia. She’s a Hoshino Coffee fan.

I had cold coffee.

Spaghetti bolognaise with a fried egg on top. Wooow. The sauce was amazing!!

And matcha pancake … wow, so soft!!!!

Cost came to over ¥2000 … think this was the most expensive lunch I bought whilst in Japan.

Address: Japan, 〒600-8214 Kyoto, Shimogyo Ward, Higashishiokoji Takakuracho, 8−3 JR

Went back to the hotel and took a long nap… That’s what holidays are for!

Then I woke up, and decided on dinner. Well this place Matsuya 松屋 looked good. The dinners looked appetizing from the posters on the outside…

However, the food was too salty… even the Chinese family sitting next to me talking in Mandarin said the same thing I was thinking of. The burger and the sauce itself had a very salty taste to it. Lots of men who probably don’t cook were there to eat.

Address: Matsuya Shijo Omiya Station, Japan, 600-8441 Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi, Shimogyō-ku

Needed something sweet!! After all of that salt, my body was calling for something fruity and a cheese snack. 😋

The cheese potato snacks had actual cheese melted onto the crisps. Hah!

That’s the end of the day… still more to do!!

End of Day 8.