Nick's student exchange life in both Japan & Taiwan: 2009

Nara (famous for shika "deer")

This week is the golden week in Japan. That means that the Japanese people have five days of holidays continuously. The golden week consists of the weekends, Greenery Day, Children’s Day and Observation of Constitution day. Me and my friends have plan to visit Nara during this vacation.

Nara is the Japanese capital city that was built in 710 AD, in a layout based on the Chinese grid system of streets and avenues. At the north central part of the city was the Nara Palace, seat of the centralized local state government. During its heyday, ancient Nara held a population of 100,000, making it the largest of the ancient cities of Japan.

This is the five level pagoda in Nara

There are a lot of temple and historical places in Nara. Here is the map for the whole area around Nara Park. Using this map, we can visit all the interesting places by walking distance.

Here is a temple and you can see the people knocking the bell
using the long cloth for praying and wishing.

This is my friend touching the shika and then the interesting things happen afterwards. The shika shit on the spot. We are shocked to see that but fortunately the shika’s shit is not wet. It is something like small black stone that is quite dry. The scene really make us laugh.. hahahah……

This is a beautiful shika with a nice short horn.

It has a pair of big eyes and I guess it is a female shika.

I am listening what the shika talking to me

Now is my turn touching the shika.

I better be careful if not the shika will shit for me again.

Here are the “chisai shika” which are smaller in size. They are quite afraid to human.

When you feed them please be gently if not you will scare them away.

Now when the night comes, all the shika will gather around and rest at the field.

Their eyes are huge and shinning. We move slowly and gently so that we do not scare them.

Here is the Botanical Garden. It is famous for the purple colour leaves.
We have to walk in to the forest for around 15minutes to reach here.

Nara had been added into World Heritage List On Dec 2, 1998 by UNESCO World Heritage Committee. It has the universal value of cultural and natural sites which deserve protection for the benefits of all humanity.

My friend is holding the Shika biscuit on her hand. It is the biscuit that we bought purposely to feed the Shika. It costs us 150 yen per pack.

I had tasted it, it feel like normal biscuit but the taste not so nice.

Here is another temple inside Nara parks. The temple is located mid in the forest.

There a lot of light stands made of huge stone surrounding the temple.

If all the light stands are lighted during the night time, I guess the scene will be very awesome.

This is the front gate of the temple. The time we reach there is 5.50pm and the temple is closed at 6.00pm. We are lucky as we can go into the temple although it is just for a short while.

Here are the famous purple plants inside the temple.

They are famous plants in Nara parks.

They look like the small purple orchid if you look it from a short distance.

They are really beautiful.

If you see them from a far distance, you will think they are the grapes. I can’t make the different when I first saw them in the temple until I am close enough to look clearly on them.

There are whole row of Golden Tang Lung right behind me.

These are the wooden plates that people use to make wishes and hope that their dream will come true. You just need to write your name and wishes on the plate and hang it at the rack provided by the temple. Then, hopefully your dream will come true soon.

There is a western restaurant on the top of the hill. The view there is very beautiful as you can see the whole town from the hill. We are now at the half way to Todaiji Temple.

Finally, we reached a temple beside the Todaiji.

Let take some pictures while we rest a while before we continue the journey.

I am now in front of the Dragon Water Sources.

Here is Drogon pouring water from its mouth.

You can use the water for wash hand and you can drink the water too if you want.

People do think that it is the scared water with the symbolic of Dragon.

Here is a tiny shrine with a big tree beside it.

They really make a huge contrast.

This is a huge viewing platform. From the platform, we can see the two different parts of Nara. One side is the natural side while the other is the urban side that filled with the human light.

At the end, we reached Todaiji. However it was already closed. We did not get the chance to see the huge Buddha. But it is ok, we will come again next time.

Nara is a place that really differentiates for its natural side and urban side. We spent for more than half an hour near the Nara parks but we did not found any food shops that are open. Till we reach the Nara Station, only we managed to find a good restaurant for our dinner.

The environment of the place is very good. Another good thing that should be praised is the service of the restaurant. The waitress guided for every moment in the restaurant and they seem like know about everything that you need. We really feel comfortable at there after
whole day of walking

In the restaurant, you can make your own source. They will give you a bowl of sesame. You need to crash the sesame into small pieces in the bowl then you add in the source they provided and stir it with then sesame. There are two flavours for the sources.

Either is sweet source or spicy source. I pick a spicy one and it really tastes good.

The meal really makes me full and satisfied.

I better rest for a while and enjoy my tea before we continue the journey.

After that, we went to a souvenir shop and I spotted this cute tiny Shika.

So I bought it as a remembrance for my trip to Nara.

We have decided to test our cooking skills so we have this cooking session in my speaking partner house. Each of us prepared one meal and we share all the foods. I have decided to make dessert as it is easier to make. haha. Jess had made the Tsurashi sushi and Sabrina made the egg, sausages and ham. Here are our lunches in noriko's apartment.

Here are me, Jess and my speaking partner Noriko

We are setting up the table for lunch

Here is Sabrina with us. She came late as she has a ceramic class but she bring good foods for us. It is worth while for us to wait for her before we start to eat the lunch. Haha...

Jess is washing the dishes. She is so happy with the dishes.

I am cooking the dessert: The red bean with sagu (Malaysia Dessert)

Here we are my creation "Red Bean Dessert". It looks nice and I am sure it tastes good too. We also kept some of it in the freezer to make some “Red Bean Ice Cream”

Me & my speaking partner: Noriko

After the lunch, we played something interesting. It is the Jengga. I brought it from my home stay so that we can have some funs together. I have not play this game for such a long time already.

Wah, it is dangerous. The base just only supported by a few Jengga and it is tall. Now is my turn, I don’t want it to fall. I must be careful. Yeah, I can make it.