Taste of Japan: Day 07

Kyoto was on the menu for today, which included a one night stay and a round trip from Tokyo on a bullet train! We got up early this morning to catch the train at 730am. The train ride itself was quite the experience. In Japan, they have three different types of bullet trains, which is I like to sum up as the fastest, faster, and fast trains -- we took the faster one. Although going at a speed of around 250km/h, the ride was smooth, the seats were comfortable, and the leg room was plenty.

One thing we were excited about the train ride was the possibility of seeing Mt. Fuji. We read that you get a nice view of Fuji on the way to Kyoto, and our friends had gone to Kyoto before we arrived and they were able to see it. The travel book we read said you would see Mt. Fuji about 45 minutes in to the train ride after departing Tokyo. Around 45 minutes later, we saw Mt. Fuji! We were lucky this time around as the sky was somewhat clear and we had a nice view! Since we missed it the other day, we were happy to see it this time (however, coming back from Kyoto the next day, it was too cloudy so we didn't see it on our way back).

We touched down in Kyoto and hoped on a local train and made our way to Nara, a city about 30 minutes south of Kyoto. The main purpose of going to Nara was to see Todaiji, the world's largest wooden building housing the largest statue of Buddha in an enclosed building. The bronze Buddha is 15 meters high, and its hand  is larger than the average person. The pictures don't do its justice as it's hard to know how big it really is without being there.

The walk to Todaiji was interesting as well as Nara is famous for their friendly deer that roam around the city. The deer over there was equivalent to pigeons here in Toronto, meaning they're just hanging around in the park in bunches. There are people selling crackers that the deer like to eat as well, so that's probably another reason why they're in the area. 

After Nara, we made our way back to Kyoto and went to the Nishiki market, a long path of little shops that sell trinkets and food. We were unlucky with the timing once again, as the shops started closing about 30 minutes after we started walking around. 

We strolled our way to the Gion district of Kyoto. After roaming around what seemed to be a secret area due to the lack of people and the hush restaurants, we finally found a restaurant to have dinner. One of the best eating experiences in my life as I ordered the sashimi, which included shrimp sashimi that I watched the chefs pull live from the tank!