The day we head back to the LAND OF DEERS after 4 years!! ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶…⋆ฺ
I love Nara station! (from the outside at least)
Once out of the station it was perhaps a 15 minutes walk up to the park, but don't worry about getting lost as virtually everybody would be going in the same direction as you. On the way there, we spotted many convenience stores and had to check those out!
Good thing the price for the deer snack didn't change. Only ¥150. The only thing that changed was the amount of people in Nara compared to a couple years back. The deers would bow to you in order to get you give them some biscuit.
We spotted a group of deer waiting to cross the road. Once all the cars stopped and the road was clear, all the deers that were waiting to cross, jumped over the fence to the other side.
We ventured further away from the park and found more shrines. It was so pretty with the cherry blossom blooming and petals falling.
Along the same street, we entered Okumura Commemorative Museum. The museum itself is quite small with a bit of history about earthquakes and you can go up to the second floor and enjoy the open terrace. You can see Mt. Wakakusa-yam from the rooftop. This place is a great resting spot for tourists.
We headed back to Nara park towards Todaiji temple.
This is the great Nandaimon Gate made purely of wood. This gate is massive and is guarded by two Nio Guardian Kings on each side.
I took a picture of Todaiji Temple from outside the wooden fence as we did not want to purchase an admission ticket to see the bronze buddha. The Todaiji Temple and the buddha is considered a UNESCO site so it might be worthwhile to see it in person. There were a lot of tourists taken pictures from the outside like us so don't feel embarrassed. LOL.
After spending half a day at Nara and fighting off the crowds, we decided to head back. We did buy several neatly packaged mochi as souvenirs for family back in Vancouver. Tastewise, the mochi was meh but we got to buy something at the very least.
As we headed back, we did some shopping at the Naramachi area aka. "Nara Town" and Higashimuki Shoppping District. I found this store "Okanishi Butcher Shop" selling fried corn dogs as well as other fried stuff but I couldn't read the menu. SO GOOD. ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ If only we bought one each, but we had to "share." There was a line for this store; if there is a line it must be good. We couldn't find a place for lunch so we had to settle for street food here and there. Also, some of the stores here were selling a lot of cheap food so we came out of several bags of chips, chocolate and candy.
As we headed back to the station we saw the famous mochi pounding demonstration. It was hard to see as the crowd surrounding the store was huge but after it finished the crowd dispersed and we were able to buy two mochi for ¥200 each. It was good but not great.
After half a day in Nara we headed back to Osaka in hopes of eating some famous fluffy pancakes at Gram. We had to get back to Shinsaibashi to make it to their next serving of fluffy pancakes. We hustled through the streets taking as many shortcuts we could find to get here and arrived just before 6PM but it was already full and we had to wait for their next round of serving. The staff said that we had to wait inside the cafe otherwise we are giving up our seats/fluffy pancakes to the others and that everybody in the party must order at least one item.
I couldn't wait that long for the fluffy pancakes as I was already hungry so I ordered the tirmusu pancake. The taste itself was mediocre, not sweet at all.
In conclusion, I would rate Gram cafe as 6.5/10. It is not worth the hype. It is only for the instagram.
SO MANY PEOPLE AT DONTONBURI AT NIGHT!! It was so difficult to walk as we were walking in herds.
OMG. I heard this place is very popular with their fried skewers as it is made fresh and taste very good too. Unfortunately, the line was very long so we didn't go inside. (๑◕︵◕๑)
There is a stall in dontonbori that had self serve takoyaki. It was very cheap, ¥400-500 for 8 pieces. Basically they make the takoyaki for you but they would not add the toppings, you do that yourself at the stall. There are also seats for you to eat the takoyaki as well. BEST DEAL!! (๑>ᴗ<๑) GREAT TASTE. I burned my tongue here cause the takoyaki was so hot.
We headed back to the station to grab some random snacks to eat. We found a dessert place that was still open and they had ice cream!! The ice cream was good but it was not spectacular, we were craving sweet stuff. It only come with two pieces of mochi though. The price was around ¥600-700.
We saw this at a street stall near the shopping arcade. It was very cheap and there was always a crowd here. The taste was okay, nothing extraordinary, but the price was only ¥200-300 for one. The inside only consist of one egg and some lettuce and drizzled with sauce on top. As for the gyoza, we bought this at the stall "551 horai" inside the station as it was quite popular; we always see a long line in the morning. By the time we bought the gyoza home, it was already cold so it didn't taste as good.
Matcha melon pan! It would've tasted better if we ate it fresh, but the top was still crunchy. YUM. We got this in Nara from Melon de melon. It was only ¥210 for one. They have other flavors such as strawberry, caramel, etc.
I was forced to eat the ice cream in the freezer. Only ¥100 from the supermarket near our Airbnb.
And this concludes our day of eating randomly at various stalls.
