Japan Part 3 (Nara and Kyoto)

Our last full day staying in Osaka was spent in Nara. Nara was the Edo era capital. It was one beautiful place after another. We decided right off the bat to rent bikes. The lady at the information desk questioned us and said it is uphill and really hot out. I didn't really want to do the bikes after her words of encouragement, however I followed along with the others. When Nick told me that the bikes were motor assisted my ear perked up but it wasn't until I got on the bike that I truly understood the motor part. It was a lot of fun to zoom around and the hills didn't even matter. We had the bikes for 4 hours so we got to the places and left pretty quickly.

This is the Kasuga Taisha Shrine, It was beautiful and large!

A big rock that had some information on it about the shrine

Drinking Dragon water... Not sure if it was drinking water or washing hand water.. oh well I now have the sol of the dragon in me!

There was deer everywhere andthey expected you to feed them. If you didn't have food then they didn't care about you. If you had food you were attacked by A LOT of deer.

Here is the Todaiji Temple. We didn't go inside because we didn't have much time (and it was around 800 yen a person to go inside), so we just took pictures of it. We spent more time petting the deer and watching the turtles. 

If you know anything about me, the one thing you should know is that I love turtles! Seeing these turtles made me so happy and reminded me of all the turtles I have had as pets. Here's hoping there are still alive and out there..... somewhere.

 Here is the Three-Story Pagoda. If you look on the road you will see us riding our bikes. I'm in the purple.

After sightseeing we stopped for lunch and then some shopping before we headed back. Nick thought he was buying a Kumono, however we found out later it is called a yukata. I don't think he minds. He loves to wear it!

Nick in his yukata at the ryokan.  He almost fits in!

We left Nara in the early evening to get back to Osaka for dinner and packing. Nick and I decided to do some laundry and eat meals from the grocery store. We weren't disappointed in the choices we made.

Friday morning we woke up early and finished packing and checked out. Getting to our Kyoto Ryokan was easy and we feel in love right away. Nick and I had a beautiful room with a wonderful view. We took showers, naps, and laid around for the rest of the day.

We met up with Stephanie and Brian around 7 to walk to a destination so we would be able to see one of the five mountain fires for the Gozan no Okuribi Festival. Every year Kyoto has a festival where they light these fires to guide the souls of their ancestors back to the world beyond. Find more info here. We walked about fifteen minutes to a beautiful pond that was lit up with the glow of lanterns on the water. We sat and waited for the last of the five fires to be lit. The fire was in the shape of a gate. It was a beautiful sight to watch.

This is one of the fire spots the day after it was burnt. We found it next to the Golden Pavillion. 

I started Saturday off with an AMAZING Japanese breakfast: fish, miso-soup with tofu, green stuff, eggs, and other stuff but I have no clue what it was. Nick ate some toast and eggs!

After breakfast we grabbed our packs checked out and ran to a few sights before we left on our train to Tokyo.

We went to the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillion)

We also went to the Fushimi Inari Shrine

Finally we made it to Tokyo where we are sharing a room with Brian and Stephanie. Our room is small but has two sets of bunk beds and four lockers. The bathrooms and showers are communal for all guest. We rested and then went to church the next morning. Japan has an English stake and the ward we attended was next to the LDS Tokyo Temple. We plan on going again later this week. Stay tuned for Part 4 of our amazing Japanese journey!