Nara and Dotonbori

One of my favourite days on our recent trip to Japan was our day trip to Nara.  I felt sad about leaving our accommodation in Kyoto, because I knew it meant we were on the last part of our trip and it would soon all be over. 

I just couldn't find the time to go to Nara on our first trip, but I'm so glad we made sure we went this time. I'd heard that the deer could be quite aggressive and that the tamer deer were further up in the forest area around Kasuga Taisha Shrine, so once we arrived at the train station, we caught the bus there.   

I don't think I was prepared for actually how many deer there were going to be in Nara. 

We found a place to buy the deer crackers, and I had read about keeping them in your bag or pocket, rather than holding them the whole time, or the deer would just keep coming up to you. I had also read that you should show your hands to the deer, so they knew that you didn't have any crackers in your hand and then they leave you alone. 

It seemed so magical just seeing these beautiful deer standing in the forest in between the stone lanterns. 

Jalen, Kobe and I paid to go and have a look inside Kasuga Taisha shrine. The whole area has over 3000 lanterns, which have been donated to represent the 3000 Kasuga shrines spread throughout Japan. 

This deer just seemed to know that this was the spot to stand as all the tourists would come and take photos and then feed it. 

We stayed for ages around the Kasuga Taisha Shrine area.

We then walked towards Nara Park where the more aggressive deer were. 

I was very keen to see Todai-ji Temple with the big Buddha statues inside. The Nandaimon Gate which you had to walk through to get to the temple was impressive enough with its huge statues. 

Photos just don't show how huge and impressive everything was. 

Tojaiji Temple is huge.  It was built in 752, and I find it so hard to get my head around how they build these incredible temples so long ago and how so many of them have been rebuilt after war or earthquakes and have been so well preserved. 

The statues inside were massive. It was worth going to Nara just to see this temple.

We absolutely loved going to Nara.  

We caught the train back to Osaka which was a short train ride away. We were excited to see what Melissa thought about Osaka as we love the vibe at Dotonbori which is where we stay. 

I love everything about Japan except for all the stairs at the train stations! 

We were excited to get back to Osaka and knew exactly where we were going as we were going to be staying in the same accommodation that we booked for our first trip. 

When we see the crab sign in the distance, we know that we are on our street :) 

I was so excited to get to Dotonbori as soon as we dropped off our luggage, as it was our last time that we would be able to meet up with Simone and Simon and their family. Every time I was with them, I just kept thinking 'I can't believe we are in Japan together'. It was such a dream come true. 

Simone has been the most beautiful friend to me through all the ups and downs in my life. She helped care for my boys when Noah was in hospital during the last days of life, she was at my house waiting for me the day after Aaron passed away (we were away on holiday and had to drive home after it happened), she looked after Kobe for me regularly when I was a new widow and just struggling to get through every day. She was my gym buddy every day, before we both started our jobs as teachers and she never ever forgets a birthday or anniversary. 

This moment of eating okonomiyaki together in Osaka is such a special memory for both of us.  

I loved this trip for so many reasons, but especially because we got to spend some of the time with Simone and Simon and the kids.  We said goodbye here as they were flying to South Korea early the next morning. 

As Kobe and I walked off, we noticed a busker on the bridge. Kobe called out to me to take notice of the jacket that he had on, as it was an Oasis jacket.  I stopped to look and realised he was singing a Beatles song.  Aaron loved Oasis and also the Beatles. Then he finished singing the Beatles song and started singing an Oasis song! I know Aaron was with us many times on this trip. 

Osaka is well known for Takoyaki, which are octopus cooked in balls of dough. I had to get some before I went back to our accommodation. 

I loved staying here as it was literally a 5-minute walk to Dotonbori and we could all come and go as we wanted and would just meet back up here whenever we wanted to rest for a bit. I was so happy to be back in Osaka, but sad that there weren't a lot of days left on our trip. 

Kimonos in Kyoto

We had planned on going to the Arashiyama area and the golden temple while we were in Kyoto, but time was running out to do everything and Melissa and I really wanted to wear the traditional kimonos and we knew that would take up a lot of the day, so we decided to skip the sightseeing so that we could do that.  

I had looked up whether the Japanese people minded that tourists dress up in the traditional dress, and everything that I read said that they find it a sign of respect and interest in their culture. It was the last thing that Melissa had on her bucket list to do in Japan and Harri was happy to join us. 

Jalen was out of action this day and just slept for most of the day and Kobe was happy to tag along and be our photographer. 

There were so many places in Kyoto where you could hire a kimono, so we just walked into one of the first ones that we saw as we didn't have a booking. 

 

One lady was running it and showed us to where we could choose our kimonos and then she went back upstairs to dress someone else. Melissa straight away picked a pretty blue one. 

She was able to speak quite a lot of English, and it was so interesting listening to her tell us about the kimono and the traditions behind it. She explained that even in Kyoto today, many people would wear the kimono in everyday life. 

She told us that her daughter lives in Australia and kept telling us how much she missed her and that whenever she has Australians come in, it makes her feel a little bit closer to her daughter. 

I can't remember what colour kimono I picked to start with, but when the lady went to dress me, I remember her saying something like 'oh' and I jokingly said (but knew it was the truth!) 'I'm too fat-o' (we loved putting an 'oh' onto everything) and she laughed and said, 'no, I have a lady who was six xl'. She then told me she would just get a different kimono for me and came back with one that I loved even more. 

We started off wearing the traditional shoes (which we couldn't even fit in) but quickly learnt that there was no way we could walk any distance in them, and went back and swapped them for our regular shoes. 

It felt so special walking around the Gion district in our kimonos.  

I had read about Kodaiji Temple which has its own bamboo grove and thought it would be nice to go there to get some photos.  

I'm always amazed as to how much care and pride Japanese people take in everything that they do. 

Kobe got some great photos for us. It's always busy here, but he made it look like no one else was around. 

This was one of my favourite things we did on this trip as it just felt so special. 

Later we went to do a little bit of shopping as it was our last afternoon in Kyoto.  On the bridge was a busker singing Wonderwall by Oasis which made us stop in our tracks.  Oasis was Aaron's favourite band and I know he would've been with us on our trip. 

I had a quick walk through Nishiki Market which was super busy. 

I loved walking back to our accommodation around all the beautiful streets. 

I was so excited to see a geisha walking along the street.  Despite Jay getting sick, I loved our time in Kyoto. On our first trip we ended up just doing some day trips, so it was nice to be there to just spend more time wandering around and not feeling so rushed.