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!

A ride in the rain

Today brought the moment we had been waiting for - the beginning of the scooter trip, as well as the first bit of rain that has fallen since we arrived. We found our way back to Mr Tanaka's shop where we took care of all the paperwork despite language difficulties, and at last we were on our way. The ride through Osaka was very easy as we were in either 40kph or 50kph speed zones all the way. Although Osaka has a huge population, most of them use the excellent public transport system or ride bicycles, so the traffic is not as difficult as we had imagined. On the outskirts of Osaka, we stopped in at a little diner (for want of a better word) and spied a wonderful looking meal that a customer was eating. We ordered 'two of those' - and it was as wonderful as it looked. When we got to the very edge of Osaka, the place that we had seen on Google Earth was there in real life. This was the beginning of the old road over the mountain pass that connected Nara to Osaka. It is still open to traffic, but would not be used by the average sane person as it is extremely steep and narrow.

Before heading up the mountain, we visited the nearby Shinto Shrine which we had come across when planning the trip. There was some sort of ceremony taking place, with the priest(?) in beautiful traditional robes, and Japanese flute music playing. We felt like we were witnessing something from hundreds of years ago - until a young Japanese girl came jogging up the steps in her tracksuit, listening to her iPod as she arrived.

We realised that the rain had no intention of stopping, so we wiped down the scooters' seats and started on our way. After a reasonable start, we came to the very steep part of the road. My scooter didn't want to go up such a steep slope, so John had to do a bit of pushing and coaxing. Eventually we swapped scooters and he rode it like a man and got it to the top. We visited the cute little shop at the top which sold a few souvenirs (nice ones, not 'made in China' plastic things). I think the people in the shop thought that we were crazy people, but they were very friendly and polite nonetheless. The view along the top of the ridge was great, especially after the hustle and bustle of Osaka. The area is mostly forest but also has rice paddies and a few houses. We passed an area of bamboo plants (not sure if this is called a forest??), which was an eye-opener for me as I hadn't realised how tall the plants grow.

We carefully rode down the other side of the mountain and arrived in Nara. Our lack of knowledge and experience with the GPS that we had hired meant that we had no idea how to get to our hotel. We pulled in to a petrol station (know locally as a 'gasorin stando') and asked the obliging young attendants for directions. One of the guys asked us to wait a moment, and when he came back, he had been into the office and printed out two maps from Yahoo Maps for us and then did his best to make us understand how to follow the map. While we were waiting, we witnessed some more amazing Japanese customer service. Two attendants looked after each customer, and when they were done, one of them would step out into the road and stop the traffic to allow the customer to exit the service station. As the customer drove out, the attendant bowed and thanked the customer.

We soon discovered that we didn't understand the maps or the instructions too well, but this resulted in an interesting ride around Nara so we didn't get too concerned about it. Eventually, we arrived at the junction of two roads which showed on the map in our atlas and we were in the hotel before we knew it. The hotel is part of the Toyoko Inn chain of business hotels and is fantastic value for money.

We went for a stroll to find somewhere to eat and once again we hit the jackpot. We found a very traditional place where customers sit at low tables on a platform. Shoes are left at the edge of the platform but these days, shoehorns are provided to assist in the process of getting them back on again. They also cheat with the 'low table' thing, as there is a hollow under the table to put one's legs instead of sitting on them. We had a delightful meal of a tofu starter, followed by chicken, noodles, fish and salad, and I had my first taste of Japanese beer. Kampai!!

8 floors of 'Wow'

On Wednesday morning we caught the subway to Umeda Station and went to visit the Yodabashi Camera shop. This 8 floor shop sells cameras, TVs, clocks and every variety of computer and accessories that we never knew existed. There was a whole aisle of computer mice of every shape, size and colour, and another aisle of earphones, ranging from the ordinary to the amazing, including ones that were shaped like Lego bricks, medicine capsules, jewelled flowers and Smarties, just to name a few! John rather fancied this camera - he could read the small print on something at the other end of the store.



Next stop was Ryokuchi Koen which includes the Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses. Before visiting the park, we had a lovely 'bento box' lunch from a vendor outside the station. I thought I was going to lose weight on this holiday, but I've had to revise that opinion. The food is just sensational. Going through the park, we saw this class of cute little schoolkids on an excursion, and a group of people enjoying a picnic under the cherry trees - a very common practice in Japan at cherry blossom time.

Last stop for the day was the Food Hall in the basement of the Hanshin Department Store, which I'd heard was worth a look. We were absolutely amazed! The food hall was enormous by anyone's standards and the range and quality of foods on sale were incredible. The presentation is just beautiful, and Japan hasn't yet lost its tradition of real customer service. No self-check out machines for these folk! Although a food hall sounds like a strange recommendation for a tourist attraction, I'd highly recommend adding it to any itinerary for visitors to Osaka. One of the items we spied was this gift box of fresh strawberries. The price tag says 4515 yen, which is about $52.00!

We had dinner at a Korean BBQ place, and all of that was quite enough for one day!

Getting lost, admiring toilets and visiting the castle

This morning we decided to visit the scooter rental shop to make sure we can find it easily on Thursday morning, as well as to check the size of the top-boxes to make sure they are going to hold our baggage. Although John had spent a lot of time examining the location on Google Earth, we still managed to have trouble finding it, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We roamed through some back streets of Osaka, seeing many interesting buildings, shops and people along the way. Near the scooter shop was a man cutting large blocks of ice with a chainsaw. We will never know why, as my language skills don't stretch to “Why are you cutting that large block of ice with a chainsaw?” and it doesn't appear in the Lonely Planet Phrase Book for some reason.
Mr Tanaka, the scooter rental guy, was out when we arrived, so we attempted to have a conversation with his underling. He could not speak English and my Japanese was a bit too poor to explain that we just wanted to check the size of the top-box. Eventually he got Mr Tanaka on the phone and we had a part English, part Japanese conversation. I think that we understood each other, but we'll find out for sure on Thursday.
Wherever we've been, we've shared the footpath with people racing around on bicycles. We didn't see any accidents as they do seem to have great control over their bikes, but we've quickly developed the skill of walking predictably without any sudden changes of direction.
After our visit to the scooter rental shop, we found our way to the Panasonic Centre near Osaka Castle. We spent an interesting hour browsing through the showroom of modern high-tech household items, including a toilet automatically raised its lid when we approached and presumably closed it again when it had been idle for some time. This product alone could turn around the world's divorce rate!
A note about toilets: Most of the toilets that we've used since we've been here have had heated seats, and buttons to press to produce a nice little cleansing squirt of water after using them. Some also have a button to press to play 'flushing' noises to mask any other noises that might be occurring at the time. Many also have a hand basin on top, and after the loo is flushed, the refill water comes out of a tap above the cistern, so the water that refills the loo is used for hand-washing along the way. A good option for our dry old continent, I think!
Anyway, I digress. The Panasonic Centre also had some fantastic bathrooms with TV screens mounted above the end of the bath (can you imagine trying to get the kids out of the bath and off to bed??) and power saving lights that become brighter during the evening and fade to a low glow during the day. By the time we'd finished there, our legs had done a full day's work, but we needed them to keep up with us as there was a castle to be visited.

Wow, what a sight!! Osaka Castle is a reconstructed version of the original which was destroyed by fire. The building is beautiful and the park around it is filled with cherry trees, currently in bloom just for us!

I bought a can of hot coffee from the vending machine – not because I really wanted a can of hot coffee, but because I can't do it at home.

Before tackling the castle, we had some scrumptious noodles for lunch. We've found the food to be really nice and much cheaper than we expected.

We then had some touristy fun taking photos of each other pretending to be kimono-clad Japanese people and then it was off to the castle.

One feature that wasn't in the original design of the castle is the elevator that conveys visitors to the eighth floor which includes an observation deck. Once at the top, even those with tired legs have to make their way back down by stairs, doing a lap of each floor to view the exhibits along the way. The view from the deck was really amazing. I knew in my mind that we were visiting an enormous city but I just couldn't have imagined so many buildings in view all at once. The mix of old and new is so interesting and quite a photographer's paradise. For a price of 300 yen, visitors can get dressed up in Japanese outfits for photo shoots.

These adorable little folk enjoyed their dress-up fun, as did all the camera-wielding adults in the vicinity.

Then with severely aching legs, we plodded our way back to the subway and travelled back to Tennoji Station. Walking back to hotel, we saw some more interesting sights. We've seen some very strange/interesting slogans and phrases written on T-shirts. It appears that someone takes an English dictionary, randomly selects a few words and then has them printed on T-shirts. The best one today was 'Monkey Bomber'. Soon after passing the monkey bomber, we passed a lady with a dog who gave us a new and unexpected experience. The dog had deposited a poop on the footpath, and the lady bent down with a tissue in her hand. I assumed it was to pick up the offending item – but she actually, truly, I kid you not, wiped the dog's bottom with the tissue! Well I never!! We found a small family-run noodle shop where we had another great value meal – a big bowl of noodles each, some fried chicken, spring rolls, rice and pickles – all for about $13.00! I'd been told several times that Japan was very expensive. I'm sure it could be if we wanted it to be, but we've had no trouble finding great food at a great price. I had pictured John living on hamburgers for a month, but he's loving the food so far. (I'll provide an update on this situation once we've left the big cities). The visit to the noodle shop provided an opportunity for me to speak a little Japanese and for the noodle shop lady to speak a little English. A very friendly and enjoyable meal.
While I was writing all this, John went downstairs to have his first traditional communal Japanese bath then he flopped into bed and started snoring. I hope that a good night's sleep will prepare our legs for another day of Osaka. Mata ashita ne!!

We finally made it!

After a very tiring journey, at last we are in Osaka. The trip from Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur was so smooth that I seem to have lost my dislike of flying. I watched the Richard Gere movie "Hachiko: a dog's tale" - and made it more of a challenge by watching it in Japanese. Then we both watched "The blind side" with Sandra Bullock, and before we knew it, we were sweltering in Kuala Lumpur's 29 degree humidity. In search of a cup of tea that didn't require a second mortgage, we settled on Burger King. A pathetic start to our grand cultural adventure!

On the next leg of the journey we both tried to sleep, but only managed a couple of hours. We arrived in a very cool and cloudy Osaka at 6.45am. After the formalities, and a stressful moment when the ATM told us that our card wasn't valid (it was OK the second time), and then another stressful moment trying to work out what trains tickets we needed from the vending machine, we found our way to the right platform and caught the train to the station close to our hotel. While walking to the hotel, we came across a bakery with some delightful-looking treats in the window, so our first food consumed in Japan was a scrumptious cake for John and a warm savoury bread for me. I think John was a bit dubious about whether he'd bite into his cake and find something like a tentacle or piece of something unidentifiable, but all was well.

We checked into the Hotel Raizan South ($162 for the 2 of us for 3 nights!) and had a bit of a snooze.

But Japan waits for no sleepy-heads, so we caught the subway into Namba and strolled around the underground shopping mall - the likes of which I've never seen in my life. It was HUGE and so was the crowd!

The young Japanese folk were out in force displaying their gorgeous fashions. A young lady I know would have been beside herself if she'd seen all the shops selling clothes, shoes, handbags, accessories etc.

We had a browse in a bookshop and were particularly intrigued by these two. John suggested that Volumes 1 and 2 of Cat Shit One '80 must have been achieved enough success for Volume 3 to be published!

After drooling at many cafe and restaurant windows, we had a very nice noodle dish for dinner and as I write, we're about to watch a video (free loan in the hotel), and then I feel an early night coming on.

We're off to Osaka Castle tomorrow.