Hi everyone! I'm concluding my series on our recent 2-week trip to Japan. Our two-week adventure started in Tokyo and included a day trip to Mt. Fuji and the Hakone area. After that, we spent two nights at Tokyo Disneyland. We then traveled to Kyoto, where we took this one-day trip to Nara. If you are just starting, make sure to check out these posts first.
We took a charming train from Kyoto to Nara, where we spent the day exploring.
Nara is known for its sacred deer, which are everywhere you look. There are 1,300 that freely roam in the park and around the temples.
They are sacred to the Japanese, and it is part of the experience to feed them crackers. You buy crackers from nearby stands, and they are supposed to gently take them from you and bow for them.
They are really cute and pretty from a distance.
The boys even got up close to a few of them.
The funny thing is that when you buy them crackers and feed them, they get crazy aggressive! I'd heard this, but it was kind of nuts to experience it first hand.
They try to grab the crackers from you and even nibble at you.
Jackson was not having it!
And while we got some good posed photos, most of our time doing this actually looked like this.
And this. This was one of those experiences that was absolutely better in theory. While we got a huge laugh out of it, not a single person loved how food-aggressive they are.
We also loved the temples in Nara, including the massive Todai-ji Temple, which was completed in AD 752.
This is the Hall of the Great Buddha.
And finally we got to go to the Ara-ike pond and explore.
We had lunch in a traditional Japanese farmhouse with noodles and broth. It was all homemade and so sweet!
We all loved it!
After that, we went back to Kyoto and had our last dinner there, which was amazing. To get home, we took the bullet train back to Tokyo and then flew to Asheville.
Visiting Japan was beyond my wildest expectations. We loved experiencing a culture so different from ours and loved sharing this with our boys.
If you are just starting, make sure to check out these posts first.
In the coming weeks, I will share more photos and travel guides from our trip! I hope you will enjoy reading them and coming along for the journey.
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