We chose to spend 9 nights in Kyoto because it is an excellent springboard for several destinations that can be visited as easy day trips by train, including Nara, Osaka, Kobe, Himeji, Nagoya, etc.
Nara served as Japan’s first capital in the 8th century and is home to the famous sacred deer. In the Shinto religion, deer are believed to be messengers of the gods and for this reason they are revered in Nara. There are hundreds of wild deer roaming freely and they don’t just stay in the park. Due to the absence of tourists during COVID, they reverted to more natural behaviors, including foraging for food, but based on our observations that didn’t last long after tourists returned.
It was fun to walk along and greet the deer with a “hello, Bambi.” We chose not to feed them as we saw they get a bit aggressive when they know someone has purchased deer crackers. It was entertaining to watch those who did buy crackers freak out when they were suddenly swarmed by deer, dropping the crackers as they ran away from their Instagram moment.
The deer are not the only highlight of Nara. Kasuga Taisha is a large Shinto shrine complex that was a pleasure to wander through. It sits within a very old forest, where you’ll find more deer, of course, and many stone lanterns. You can even make prayer offerings on deer shaped wooden cards. The natural beauty blended with the spiritual is enchanting.
Todaiji Temple is one of the largest wooden structures in the world and Japan’s largest Buddha statue sits inside. The stature of the building and the Buddha is astounding.
As we wandered our way back to the train we saw other temples, traditional gardens, and more deer. Our trip to Nara was a delight.
Inspired by our day in Nara, the next day we headed to Osaka, Japan’s second largest metropolitan area. We started with coffee at a small café where the elderly owner made amazing lattes and performed a few magic tricks for us – he passed a handkerchief through his cell phone! We then headed to Osaka Castle, a 16th century shogunate stronghold built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose life story and role in Japanese history was dramatically told in the museum. This hagiography was undermined later when we looked up the history of the Mimizuka – an odd monument in Kyoto. It holds thousands of severed noses of Koreans and Chinese killed during Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea between 1592-1598. Japan’s history is filled with violence and war, not unlike many other countries.
The castle sits in the center of the city and offered great views of the modern metropolis.
We visited Osaka's large market where Jeff had grilled eel, and then meandered through the city’s central commercial zone. You’ll never guess what the restaurant in the photo below serves.
We knew that snow was predicted and had seen a couple of flakes during the day, but we had no idea that back in Kyoto it had been snowing A LOT.
The train trip between Osaka and Kyoto is all of 30 minutes, but it took us 6.5 hours to get back! First, we waited more than an hour and a half in the cold on the Osaka Station platform because of extensive delays in service. We finally got on a train that moved slower than normal. The train then stopped on a bridge outside of Kyoto where we sat for more than 2.5 hours. There were many announcements, which we could not understand. The entire time the Japanese were silent – seriously, not a peep, and no one offered any information to us. Using Google Translate I surmised that it was unknown when we would get moving again. We finally moved off the bridge, to wait another 45 minutes or so, and then we arrived at a local station one stop away from Kyoto Station where a kind Japanese man told us the train would not go any farther. While another train at that station was supposedly going to Kyoto Station, we were done with trains for the night and chose to walk to our hotel in the fresh snow – about a 30-minute walk (we would have had to walk 15 minutes anyway) – arriving close to midnight.
It turned out that we had gone to Osaka on the day that Kyoto experienced its worst snowstorm in at least 10 years. Thus, our outing to Osaka did not end well. Moreover, the trains in and out of Kyoto had service interruptions for the next several days as the area received more snow as it tried to recover from the original dump. This meant we did not take any other daytrips. It's a good thing we took these daytrips early in our Kyoto stay!
Fortunately, there is enough on offer in Kyoto that we kept plenty busy, even though our pace was hindered by the snow, ice, and cold. We did our best to stay warm and entertained but traveling in January can be tough.
Keeping it real in Japan,
Shana & Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment