Let's continue with the trip, shall we?
But let's also backtrack a little bit, to the morning of Day 3.
Since we'd be travelling to another city via public transport, with 5 pieces of luggage, we decided to use Baggage Transfer service and sent the larger bags away!
I had seen some people doing it - and talked to a friend who had tried this service before, so I was quite confident in the service. The only catch is that it would take the transfer company overnight to transfer our luggage.
That's why on the evening of Day 2, we informed the reception that we want to do this transfer, and morning of Day 3, we dropped off 3 large suitcases at the reception. We kept our overnight things in the two smaller suitcases, with one or two extra clothes.
Quick tip! Prepare the name of your next hotel, the address, phone number, and name+code of the booking of the next hotel handy. For the hotel name and address, sleuth around and find their Japanese version. It would usually be available on their website or booking sites. It would make the process so much easier!
Also, prepare cash to pay the reception, who can actually help us arrange the transfer with the transfer company! I'm pretty sure they used 'Kuroneko' service - so you can guestimate how much it would cost based on the size of your luggage and destination.
Ok, now we're ready to go into day 4!
DAY 4
We woke up as early as possible and checked out of the hotel. Saying goodbye to Osaka was bittersweet because it was one of the legs of our trip done :")
But I was also excited for the day ahead, because we are doing a day trip to Nara!
Everyone who goes to Osaka & Kyoto would tell you to go to Nara, and you should! We did a day trip, but I think an overnight trip would still be wonderful as there are quite a lot of things to do & see, actually.
Once we arrived in Nara, we hired a locker in the train station to keep our two hand-carry luggage. Then, off we went to explore!
Nara is a little charming town. Beautiful and serene.
Our first stop (after the mandatory 7-11 coffee) was Nakatanidou! The infamous mochi maker. We didn't get there when there was a show happening, but it was crowded nevertheless. You just tell them how many mochi you want, and they'll pack it up nicely!
The mochi was covered with kinako and filled with anko. The taste is earthy, not too sweet, with a nice sticky chew.
For the cherry on top: walk another block from Nakatanidou, and you'll find yourself in Sarusawa-ike pond. Find a bench and have a seat as you enjoy the mochi and the view. Amazing.
We decided to explore the town on foot for a little bit and find lunch. We chose a charming little restaurant in the shopping 'mall' we found. Another set menu: and it's chicken katsu curry for me. Nice, warm, filling.
After lunch, we headed to the part of town that makes Nara so famous: the deer park!
You can see them from miles away - just hundreds of deer, and people trying to either feed them or get them to bow for the cam!
As you walked closer, you'd find ladies sitting on a little chair and table, selling either deer crackers (special snack to feed the deer) or warm baked yam.
As I am rather squeamish and not that into interacting with animals, I leave the deer alone. No touching, no feeding, just admiring up close. And, I was safe from deer-shoving xD
The park itself was massive, and gorgeous. At this time of year, there are orange leaves everywhere. I couldn't describe how beautiful it was :")
For me, I like to have a destination even when just exploring the area. I didn't expect the street to be hilly! I think you can take uber or the bus, but we thoroughly enjoyed the walk.
We itnitially wanted to find this deer inn - it took a while and it was underwhelming (or maybe we didn't find the right one lol). So, we walked to our next destination: Todai-ji Nigatsu-do. Walking down a different route, we passed by by the beginning of Wakakusayama Hill. From there, we observed the Todai-ji from the outside, took a few photos, and called it a day in this park.
Another mandatory thing: coffee stop! Rokumei Coffee came heavily recommended for this. As they don't serve non-coffee drinks beside apple juice, I ordered an affogato. SO SO delicious. After around 30-60 of rest (and warmth), we walked back to the street we first walked in Nara.
At this point, the sky was getting dark and the shops are closed. And it was only 4:45 pm! We quickly hit the souvenir shop as I wanted to get some postcards (and ended up with a tiny cute deer plushie as well!)
We returned to the train station, fetched our luggage from the locker, and found our train to our next destination: Kyoto!
We learned that there are several different trains here - you can take the local train, or you can take the rapid, and even express train. If you want to get to your destination quicker, you can take the express (with added price i think?) or rapid. But I'm good with the local, even when it took a bit longer.
We arrived in Kyoto at around 6 pm.
We were quite hungry, so we headed up the iSetan department store to find Hakata Ikkousha. tbh, this was my least fave meal in Japan. The ramen didn't taste like what we expected! Idk if this was regional style or if it was off that day.
From there, we made our way to my fav accommodation on this trip: hotel Androoms - where our other luggage were waiting! Yay! They all made it safe and sound.
After settling in, we actually needed to get some things from the konbini. Fortunately, Androoms was surrounded by convenience stores. But we ended up walking a lap around the block and taking in the cold Kyoto air.
It was a quiet start to a fantastic 2nd leg of the trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment