Our Japan Honeymoon: Day 10

We r off to Nara today!!

still sick of the onigiri..so i had cake and bread wif tea...

the nice packaging of my cake..

ta-daa! its strawberry cake again!! but this is not as nice as the Ginza one at Tokyo train station..

my tea wif bread..

it was a saturday..so there was some special pass for subway..we paid abt 300yen for unlimited trips which was v worth!!! subway is not covered by the JR pass by the way...

we den went to the Osaka JR station to get tix so tat we can go back to Tokyo...but unfortunately the earlier trains were all full and left non-smoking and single seats..its my mistake not to go and book the tixs earlier as i totally lost track of time and forgot tat its the wkend and alot of ppl r going to Tokyo for the wkends usually...so we cld only get a 1+ train which only reach Tokyo abt 4... sigh..nxt time muz book tix earlier!

it was another cold cold morning..waiting at the train station for the train to Nara..

oh yes, i like to act cute...

on the train..taking photos to pass some time...

and after abt an hr plus..we reached Nara..

sakura again!

their typical garden landscape..dun this look similar to the one at Kyoto Maruyama Koen?

a long flight of steps up..

i think these r tombs..

walking towards the Nara Park

and in these park..the deers roam ard freely...and they seem to like darling more than me cos they actually respond to him but not me!

they r allowed to roam freely and pose no danger to the public cos their horns r removed...they r considered the messengers of God in the Shinto religion...so the public oso treated the deers v nicely by buying senbei for them to eat...

so they eat and they shit! look at the poop!! but there's always a few park attendants ard so they will keep cleaning up the poop so the place dun smell and its not dirty..

the Five Story Pagoda...2nd highest pagoda in Japan..

someone dropped a pc of map and the deer gobbled it up! haha!

the Todaiji - it hses Japan's biggest Buddha statue and oso its one of Japan's most famous and significant temple..

the young bambi resting..

aint this cute?

the pond wif the willow tree...in 2003 when I came here...i saw a crane on the willow tree!

the magnificent temple..

Sakura again..

darling offering incense..

its huge!

a model of the temple in the olden days..it was much bigger in the past but they teared down some of the section of the side temple...

i cant rem wat this was called..tink its Buddha dunno wat...its for kids..so if u can crawl thru the hole come out fr the other side..u will b blessed by the buddha..actually i can oso crawl thru lah..cos i saw 1 big size foreigner oso can go thru...

the little kid going in..

coming out..

sometimes i really like Japanese's English..AND Mandarin! haha..

its always once bitten twice shy...after the Miso Dango yest at Kyoto..darling ate the same thing again today..and its really not nice lor!!! tink its not to our taste..

Chilli Senbei..i tink its safer to eat like wasabi senbei, seaweed senbei...Japanese cant get spicy rite..they juz put in ALOT of chilli powder..and the senbei was fiery hot...until its bitter..not nice!!

nice cheeseballs we got fr 100yen shop..i rather eat this than the senbei..

this was my life saver! its was getting cold...cos its going to rain! we kept encountering rain in Japan the time we were there lor!! but this beer helped to give some warmth to my body...

on our way to the Nara Park..we saw this old man painting..and on our way back..he was finishing up! its so pretty! i tink only in countries like japan where the elderly really enjoy life...in SG..v hard lah..

on our way back, we went into the Nara Tourist Hse for a toilet break and some rest...they had a earthquake simulator which darling tried...the chair will keep moving side to side to mimic the reaction of an earthquake..

on the way back to Nara station...i wanted to buy strawberries at a fruit and vege store tat we passed by earlier to the Nara Park...and its was a bit mistake not to buy it den..cos by abt 2+..all the veges and fruits were almost sold out! and no more strawberries for me!!!!! sob sob..so muz learn fr mistake...if wan or like, juz buy..dun need to tink..wait regret lor!

there was another store selling honey..i wanted to take a break and take shelter cos the rain was quite heavy so we went in...the nice shopkeeper gave us some honey to sample...which i bot a bottle of grape honey..extremely refreshing!

i oso had one honey ice cream..but cant taste any honey leh..

potato chips..did it follow us fr Hokkaido to Osaka?? or we bot it the day b4 at 100yen shop?? cant rem liao..haha..

we den left Nara for Osaka again..and i wanted to go to the factory outlet at Hana Port...

By subway
Shin Osaka -Shimbashi
Shinbashi - Kadomaminami station (Nagahori Tsurumi-Ryokuchi Line)

we den stopped by this little restaurant tat sell Okonomiyaki and Yaki Soba..and its the same store tat Natasha and I went during our uni exchange!!!! nvr change at all leh!! there a hot plate at every table so the food r always kept warm!

yaki soba

we ordered 2 okonomiyaki - pork belly and prawn

the one wif the prawn..

i love Okonomiyaki!! i hav the recipe to do it at home..but den its not quite the same as we do not hav hot plate at home..can only use non-stick pan..but its still as nice!

darling enjoying the Okonomiyaki..

after the meal..we den went to SHOPPING! my fav activity of any time! went to Levis and got a ltd edition Spring/Summer white skinny at only 3900yen (abt 50sgd) and a black skinny for my bro at abt 2900yen

darling got a Signature Classic for only 2000yen (25sgd)! where to find such price other than factory outlet??

i cant quite rem wat else i bot at Hana Port..but all i rem is tat darling saw a Seiko watch which was v nice..for 100+...but he kept contemplating buy or not buy...i told him to buy cos wun b able to get the watch at tat price anywhere else! den he said go Hakone's Gotemba factory c hav or not...fr my experience earlier on the strawberries..if like den buy lor!! and he didnt buy any watch at Gotemba cos he din find anything he liked!!! so u c, if c u like, buy...if not will regret!!

we den bot a cup of coffee each...the cafe is still the same as the one i been to in 2006 wif Okaasan..the coffee was v gd and dun leave an aftertaste...and it felt gd holding on to a hot cuppa as we walked back to the subway station cos its already nite time by the time we left Hana Port..

SG shd follow Japan if they wan to push for more ppl to ride bikes and take public transport..their escalators actually hav a track which the cyclist can mouth the bike as he goes up and down the escalator...so the cyclist does not hav to carry his bike...convenient right?

good bye Hana Port Blossom (or in darling's words Harry Potter cos the Japanese pronounced it as Hana Potto which is a direct translation from English to Japanese)