The next morning passed more or less the same, except instead of caving in to the craving for a donut with my second cup of coffee, I bought a loaf of bread for the same price and ate a couple of extra slices of toast. Again I left the hostel in the high morning just as the sun was getting its brightest. I skipped the hat and walking stick this time as I was expecting to spend more time in museums.
I went back to the Nara National Museum, which I confirmed online should only cost 520. The original building, which houses a fine collection of Buddhist statues as well as a wing of Chinese bronzes was worth the admission price. As it was about noon as I finished, and having fully given up on any attempt to fast for the day, I swung by a couple of recommended restaurants to look at their menus before trying a third that sold hamburgers. It was satisfying but did more to whet my appetite than anything else…meaning, I swung by a 7-11 afterwards to grab some chocolates. Yikes.
My first stop in the afternoon was the Yoshikoen garden that is free for foreigners to enter. It was very pleasant and a good size. I paid to enter the garden next door (Isuien Garden), which was larger but not necessarily nicer. The rather expensive ticket also included entrance to the on-site museum that was basically just a single room with a random collection of paintings and porcelain. There was a display case at the entrance with some bowls for sale. They were beautiful but ranged from the hundreds to the thousands of dollars. I was flabbergasted.
On all my crisscrossing around that day, I saw some signs advertising free entrance for foreign visitors to the Prefectural art museum so I made a special visit. There was a concert happening on the stairs outside, but since they didn’t sound so great and I didn’t want to bake in the sun, I went directly in. The small art museum was completely dedicated to a special exhibit of the works of some German artist, who had lived in Japan for a number of years, though he eventually settled in Australia. Jorg Schmeisser worked in the medium of etching, which I guess I’m not too familiar with because they struck me as incredibly fresh and creative. I love art and I am looking forward to hitting some museums in Tokyo, though not looking forward to paying what I imagine will be incredibly high ticket prices.
Having visited three museums and two gardens, I felt I had done my tourist duty for the day and headed back to the hostel to rest, but decided to grab a drink and a snack from the supermarket first. After hydrating, I decided to offset all the eating by getting a little exercise in. After confirming that the pollution wasn’t too high (a bit high, but whatever), I laced up my running shoes and headed out. It wasn’t a great run, I’m not sure if I am out of shape or if running in a city with all the traffic and traffic lights is a problem. Actually, the real problem is that my Xiaomi Fitness app, which upgraded, crashed three times and I wasn’t able to record the run, so I don’t know if I went 5 km or 10 km or whatever.
I took a quick shower back at the hostel and headed downstairs for the Cheers hour. Being Sunday night, it was way, way quieter than the previous two nights (which both had their fair share of walk-ins drinking at the bar). There were two French guys, both traveling solo, and I chatted with them a bit as they drank sake–one for the first time, the other a regular. Since there wasn’t much going on and I wasn’t drinking, so I went out to get my dinner at the supermarket…again.
I grabbed my computer and watched a couple episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” while I ate my dinner and headed upstairs to watch a bit more while lounging on my bed because I was tired of being upright all the time.
| Bread | 108 |
| National Museum | 520 |
| Sakura Cheeseburger | 1166 |
| Chocolate | 138 |
| Isuien Garden | 900 |
| Groceries (salad and drinks) | 554 |
| Additional food (yakitori, omelette, rice balls) | 415 |
| Total: | 3801 JPY (243.3 RMB) (USD 35.41) |