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Sep. 22nd, 2007 06:52 pm
Osaka Day 2 (Friday)
We got up at a somewhat more reasonable hour, and headed out around 10 am, with a quick stop in Namba area to go to a post office so I could get money and then we hitched a ride on the Kintetsu line over to Nara.
We got there and wandered over to the Kofukuji Temple, which has a five-story pogoda (which I've heard is the tallest, but I seem to have no reference for that...).
There, we ran into the first of many dozens of deer. They just wander around the city, waiting for tourists to feed them deer crackers, which can be bought from vendors for 150 yen. Then they become really interested in you. They nudge you, and look cute, and being nudged by a deer with antlers is a little frightening, but they're really quite friendly. But if you don't have food, they wander off disinterested. Watching japanese children and teens feed the deer is funny cause they're scared of them and they try to feed them and back away at the same time.
We then saw a whole bunch more temples, including the Todai-ji temple, which has a 15 meter buddha called Daibutsu. Wikipedia indicates each finger is the size of a human... It was very big. We then climbed up a mountain (?) to see Nigatsu-do (ie, February Hall), which had a totally awesome view. I was rather sick of steps at this point.
We then wandered around the grounds of Kasuga Taisha, running into a lovely Australian couple (he was quite hot, oh my!) who we walked with for a while.
We then caught the train back to Osaka, and went to the America Village district for Okonomiyaki, which is kind of like savory pancake with cabbage and meat, and mayo and thickened soy sauce... it's really quite indescribable, which was reasonably tasty. There's a small statue of liberty and high end shops, and ridiculously dressed Japanese people.... Nifty area.
We then wandered to Dotonbori District which is a neon-infested shopping/restaurant street along a river with some neat attractions. Meg and I hopped a boat along the river, and then went to a what she calls the 7 story Japanese It Store, which has a rather tall ferris-esque wheel ride we took, which was really quite nifty.
We came home, exhausted, yet again, and collapsed into puddles of sleepiness.
We got there and wandered over to the Kofukuji Temple, which has a five-story pogoda (which I've heard is the tallest, but I seem to have no reference for that...).
There, we ran into the first of many dozens of deer. They just wander around the city, waiting for tourists to feed them deer crackers, which can be bought from vendors for 150 yen. Then they become really interested in you. They nudge you, and look cute, and being nudged by a deer with antlers is a little frightening, but they're really quite friendly. But if you don't have food, they wander off disinterested. Watching japanese children and teens feed the deer is funny cause they're scared of them and they try to feed them and back away at the same time.
We then saw a whole bunch more temples, including the Todai-ji temple, which has a 15 meter buddha called Daibutsu. Wikipedia indicates each finger is the size of a human... It was very big. We then climbed up a mountain (?) to see Nigatsu-do (ie, February Hall), which had a totally awesome view. I was rather sick of steps at this point.
We then wandered around the grounds of Kasuga Taisha, running into a lovely Australian couple (he was quite hot, oh my!) who we walked with for a while.
We then caught the train back to Osaka, and went to the America Village district for Okonomiyaki, which is kind of like savory pancake with cabbage and meat, and mayo and thickened soy sauce... it's really quite indescribable, which was reasonably tasty. There's a small statue of liberty and high end shops, and ridiculously dressed Japanese people.... Nifty area.
We then wandered to Dotonbori District which is a neon-infested shopping/restaurant street along a river with some neat attractions. Meg and I hopped a boat along the river, and then went to a what she calls the 7 story Japanese It Store, which has a rather tall ferris-esque wheel ride we took, which was really quite nifty.
We came home, exhausted, yet again, and collapsed into puddles of sleepiness.