Japan - Days 9: Nara
Inari Okami and Bowing Deer
Kyoto is the perfect city to do day trips since it’s well connected by high speed trains. So after spending a few days exploring its sights, we took the opportunity to visit Nara. The trip is a couple hours, and as it was on the way, we first stopped at Fushimi Inari Taisha - a gorgeous Shinto Shrine dedicated to Inari Okami, the deity of success, fertility and agriculture (and foxes!). Knowing the day would be long, we started the train ride very early in the morning.
Like many shrines in Japan, this one had a trail that lead us up to the summit of Mount Inari. The highlight of the visit here are the thousands of vermillion torii gates that we walk through all the way to the top (as well as many statues of foxes). Each one was donated by a person or company and the donor’s name and date of donation are inscribed on the gate. There is a lovely viewpoint midway up the trail and a shrine with many mini-torii gates at the summit. On our way back, we were very grateful for our early start because of the throngs of people crammed near the start of the trail.
Next, we got back on the train to Nara! On our way to Nara Park, we stopped at a famous mochi store where we got glimpses of them making the mochi live (it takes more strength than we thought). The little red bean paste filed mochi tasted fantastic and we went back for seconds.
It was raining a little by this time and we were a little worried that this would mean less deer roaming around, but this was not the case at all. Uma got very excited about the deer, bought a bunch of deer cookies, and then got very overwhelmed when all the deer approached her (see video). Han later informed her that there was a “correct” way to feed the deer. You must bow three times to the deer (the deer will return the three bows) and only then do you feed the biscuit to the deer.
Nara was once the Capital of Japan (during the Nara Period) and is therefore home to several temples and shrines. We visited the famous buddhist Todaiji temple where we got an audio guide and learned about its unique architecture and history (our first solid sighting of cherry blossoms!). We also visited the Nara National Museum and admired its vast collection of buddhist artifacts.
More deer footage:
(NatGeo, I’m available #shotoniphone)
We ended our day in Nara by spending more time with the deer and eating some delicious Cremia soft serve ice cream from a little store (excellent tip from Carolyn and Christian - our mouths still water when we think about it).
At round sunset we took the train back to Kyoto and decided to look for a dinner place close to our hotel sine we were quite tired after the long day. We decided on the small (and presently empty) Ajito Izakaya . The 3 young men who ran the place greeted us cheerily but we quickly realized that no one spoke English and the menus were in handwritten Japanese. Using a mixture of Google translate and hand gestures we managed to have an excellent meal and an amazing time here. We were able to have some brief conversations with the guys and they were thoroughly delighted when Han taught them how to say “fried chicken” and bought them a couple rounds of beers. All in all a great end to a great day.
Nugget of the day: Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. It is also a type of sweet fried tofu. This information helped when we used Google translate on a menu at an udon restaurant and saw “fox” listed as one of the add-ons. Incidentally, Inari is also the name of a type of stuffed sushi.
Also, Japan is full of little capsule machines selling small trinkets and toys. We were introduced to them by Carolyn’s appreciation for JR train capsules, but we saw some of them on this day and these will play a bigger role in the trip later.
