Dear little deer in Nara

Today we visited the main attractions of Nara. Before starting off, we decided to buy folding umbrellas, so we rode the scooters through some little alleyways until we found a likely looking shop. I told John to ask for a "chisai kasa" and see what happens. He was very pleased with himself when the shop assistant took him straight to the small folding umbrellas! We then went to Nara Park, the site of a number of spectacular old buildings - as well as a multitude of deer. The deer roam around freely and the first thing we saw when looking for a car park was a group of about 30 deer crossing the road (in a very orderly fashion) at the pedestrian crossing.

A number of stalls in the park sell packets of special biscuits for the deer, which are apparently not too tasty for humans. As we didn't have any deer food, one of them took a little bite out of John's Kansai Visitor's Guide which was in his back pocket.

The cherry trees surrounding the pagodas and temples were truly spectacular. They are in full bloom at the moment, just as I had hoped they would be.

The Todai-ji Temple is the largest wooden building in the world and houses a 16metre high cast bronze Buddha. After entering the temple we sat on a seat facing the Buddha to rest our legs. After a while I noticed that John was sitting quietly gazing towards the heavens. I thought he was having a spiritual moment, but he then proceeded to explain to me how the temple had been constructed. Of course.

Once we'd had enough of Buddha, temples, cherry blossoms, deer, foreign tourists and souvenirs, we went looking for a bakery. In a land that lives on rice, bakeries are not easy to find. There is usually one near each large railway station, but that didn't help us today. We asked directions from a man who spoke a little English - but he was as deaf as a post! He drew us a little map, but we couldn't find the bakery. Eventually we settled for Moss Burgers (like Macca's). One of the things on the menu was a Teriyaki Chicken Burger, so that's what I had for lunch. I guess that was sort of doing as the locals do.

After lunch we set out for Otsu, a town on Lake Biwa near Kyoto. The temperature had dropped quite a bit by then, so it was a very chilly ride. We broke the journey with a cup of tea at McDonald's (yes, I know, 2 burger joints in one day!). We had a cup of 'hotto tea' each and thawed our hands. I had learned to call Western tea 'kocha', but 'hotto tea' seems to be what the locals call it! The number of English words that have been adapted by the Japanese is quite amazing. The words on the McDonald's drive way say "doraibu suru" (drive through). We see many examples of this every day.

By the time we arrived at our hotel at Otsu we were chilled to the bone. John still insists on saying 'there's a nip in the air' despite my reminders that this might be a little rude! We jumped into a hot bath, which is deep enough to sink into right up to the ears. We then set out in search of dinner. We found a ramen noodle shop and ordered by pointing to the menu. The other customers in the shop seemed quite amused by these strange looking people who had invaded their space. They couldn't help looking at us, probably to see how we managed to eat long slippery objects with two thin bits of wood, but we carried it off quite well, I think. We haven't yet developed the art of the noisy 'noodle slurp', but we'll work on that one. We each had a bowl of noodle soup, fried chicken, spring rolls, a bowl of rice and some vegetables for a total of about $21 for the two of us. We're looking forward to visiting the lake tomorrow, then we're off to Kyoto. Tomorrow night we'll be sleeping in a Youth Hostel, so I may not be able to do my nightly update, but we'll be back!