Slept in late due to everyone going to bed late. Apparently Mari made it in after 1 AM! We cooked breakfast then headed to the train. It was 12 noon by the time we arrived in Nara. We hit up Todaiji temple first, not before Shane bought a bag of roasted chestnuts off the street, a fall Japanese treat. The temple was as impressive as I remember it to be, and Mat thought it was pretty cool too. The largest wooden structure in the world housing the largest bronze Buddha in the world. Mat fed the deer on the way out, they started to harass him as he passed out biscuits but he didn't get head-butted like some of the other people. We next swung by one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world.
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| Todai-ji |
We were hungry by this point so we headed half way down the hill to a food festival. The lines were really long for carnival style food so we decided to go all the way back to the station where a shopping mall with restaurants was located. Waiting for a table took longer than expected but we got in and ordered our Omurice, or rice and egg omelet with choice of sauce. I ordered the green tea creme brûlée. It turned out a little rich but still tasty, especially the red bean paste at the bottom. It was 3:30PM by the time we left the restaurant. Not enough time of revisit Wakamiya shrine and definitely not enough time to visit the Nara National museum (which had a massive entry line), nor the little market Mari wanted to see. So they took us to the mochi shop where we watched the workers beat the mochi dough. We ordered some and made our way back on the train station to get back home.
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| Omurice lunch! |
It was a beautiful sunset and we were back to the house by 5:15PM. We relaxed a little before Shane and I left Mari napping and Mat playing video games to go to Shane's adult english class. Every Thursday evening he teaches English to a group of retired folk for two hours. It was very fun conversing in english, telling them about our visit so far and asking for suggestions of places to visit and foods to eat while I'm here. I showed them pictures of where Mat and I live an of our dog. It was a lot of fun. There were two gentlemen who were 86 years old, one who does comedy in front of audiences and the other has traveled to 80 countries making little films about his trips that he shows. He just came back from Germany last week and had lovely German chocolate to share with everyone. When I told the group about our luggage being lost, they were surprised - until they found out we were flying China Eastern Airlines. They became very concerned if my fleece jacket would keep me warm enough. I reassured them that I wasn't cold at all and this weather is similar to Alaskan summers. Too funny! We had a grand time.
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| Mat and the sacred deer |
Shane and I walked home and Mari had dinner waiting for us. She made nikujaga (sounds like "I got the moves like Jagger" which she and Shane started to sing). It was delicious. Now time to relax and go to bed. However, around midnight we got a request to FaceTime with Ty and the kiddos so spent 40 minutes chatting with them.
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| Shane & Mari at Todai-ji |
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