japan: part four, oh the deer.

Nara and the deer! Our next full day we went to a city called Nara and they are known for having deer that are not afraid of humans, in fact you can go right up them and pet them!

Morning tea before we checked out of the hotel.

Oh bus #5.

A view from the train to Nara.

Yes, those are deer in the median...

Ryan and a deer!!

The mangy deer!

My BFF, a self pic with the mangy deer!

A 5 tier pagoda.

Bambi! Awww, so cute.

Now, Kathryn did NOT enjoy the deer. Even when I tried to convince her just touch the deer, she still couldn't do it. I think they liked her though....ha.

The temple with a HUGE buddha.

The gigantic buddha...wow.

Round about sushi! It was so fun, we just would grab the plate we wanted and at the end we just paid for the sushi we had grabbed from the conveyer belt.

Look! I'm gonna try squid! I mean, it's Japan, right?!

" Kathryn, I really don't think I can swallow this...." "You gotta do it Alisha"

Ryan and the mascot of Nara...ha!

At the train station before taking the night bus back to Tyoko.

Ice cream, day #3

After this we got on the night bus for the second time...this time when I got off for the bathroom at a rest stop, I wasn't sure which was the men and women's room because I couldn't read the Japanese and there were no pictures! HA!

japan: part three, rice balls

We spent our second full day in Osaka, which is on a Harbor. It was SO hot, a few times I thought I wasn't gonna make it...I am not cut out for humidity anymore.

This was my breakfast... most days...a rice ball. Basically seaweed on the outside, then rice, and then in the middle was tuna. Yum, I want one right now.

On the train to Osaka!

I definitely saw this sign on my way OUT...

Osaka was very much like a typical city with modern looking skyscrapers.

Ryan was enjoying the view.

This was called the island. It reminded me so much of downtown Chicago.

The Ferris Wheel. Gosh was it high, but really beautiful to see the whole city.

Kathryn did not enjoy it.

Day two of ice cream every day: Black Sesame ice cream, which was actually really great!

Mmmm. Grape soda from the hundreds of vending machines on the streets.

A weird giant head!

Namba!

Namba Parks! This place is a garden on the top of a mall. We decided to take a little rest on the patch of grass until a security guard said something in Japanese and we figured he was kicking us out...

They love to display wax food!

After getting back from Osaka, there was a shrine someone told us to see. It's said to have 10,000 tori (or gates). They were set up kind of like a bunch of tunnels you could walk through all over the grounds. Now in Japan you can buy a beer from the convienent store and then walk around drinking it. And that's exactly what we proceeded to do, at the shrine. It made for a most memorable night. Probably my favorite. Oh and that was the one and ONLY time I used a Japanese style toilet...

The Tori (gates)

Another convienent store dinner :)

japan: part two, kyoto - sprinting up a hill

My first full day in Japan (after riding on a night bus, that I pretended was just like the night bus in Harry Potter), was spent in Kyoto. We stashed our stuff in lockers at the train station because we couldn't check into our hotel until the afternoon, and set out to explore the city.

Fresh off the night bus, swollen feet, and still wearing the clothes I left LA in.

We were ready to take on the city of Kyoto.

Yes. This is a Japanese style toilet. Lucky for me they also have Western style toilets.

We watched this being made! It was warm and delicious when we ate it.

This was a market held in a shrine. Oh the market. It was so very hot. And we ate sweet potatoes on a stick with sugar sprinkled on top.

Our first time riding bus #5 that this awesome volunteer at the train station told us about

Japanese curry. Yum.

After waiting all day to check in to our hotel room and wash up, we finally got there...only to find out there was no shower in the room and the public baths were closed. (Yes, I said public baths...I'll be speaking more on that later.) We slept on futons.

After we checked in to our room and chilled out for a bit, we realized that we needed to leave to get to some former emperor's retirement home before it stopped letting people in at 4:30. After taking a few wrong buses and wrong turns, we finally got to the bus stop that would lead to our destination. The only problem was that we were cutting it extremely close to 4:30. Ryan looked at the sign that said '4 minute walk from this point', then looked at his watch and anxiously told us "it's a 4 minute walk, but we only have 3 MINTUES!" That's when we took off sprinting up the hill.

We made it, and this was the reward :) (along with a sore throat and burning muscles!)
I should also add, on the way out we saw people still being let in and it was almost 5:00...

"Hey guys? Can we have ice cream every day I'm here?"

The Philospher's path. This philospher used to walk to and from the university every day pondering life's greatest and most profound questions.

Drinking green tea before heading out to find some dinner.

Trying to find food in Kyoto...

But we settled for a convenient store dinner. Which is actually pretty common in Japan. And tasty.