In the morning, I ate the rest of my toast and hung around the hostel downstairs. I must have spent close to an hour researching hostels in Tokyo, cross-referencing prices and ratings between Ctrip and Hostelworld (I’m surprised by how much they actually diverge) and taking the plunge on my home for the next week. My bus to Tokyo wouldn’t be until 10:30 pm, so I still had the whole day to kill. I packed up my stuff to “checkout” before 11am and once the hostel actually began to show signs of life, I took off for the day to explore the area west of town, also home to a number of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
I took a long walk (about 5km) to the first temple that I didn’t even bother going into based on its insanely high ticket price. I did pay to enter the second temple, conveniently located two blocks north. Supposedly founded by a Chinese monk who helped bring Buddhist teachings to Japan in the 8th century, Toshodaiji didn’t have any particularly Chinese aesthetics to it, but the grounds were mainly forested and pretty to walk around.
The whole area, on the boundary of the suburbs and farmlands, with a rail line passing through it was quite scenic, and I followed the markings on the map for possibly interesting sites, such as a burial mound for some ancient king. The forested hill housed more than 100 water fowl who made a spectacular show of sweeping through the water and nesting in the trees. I was disappointed that I couldn’t get any good shots with where the sun was in the sky.
I followed a highway back into town and took a minor detour to see the Heijo Palace Site. I didn’t actually enter, I’m not sure there really was anything to enter, but there was a massive parking lot with a handful of large visitor centers. I explored a few of those, but decided it wouldn’t be worth walking very far to see the excavation sites.
I was a bit hungry by this point (at least in my head), and I kept thinking about a place I had passed a couple times that served scoops of ice cream inside a melon bun (sweet bread). I headed that way and treated myself to one, delighted that it was slightly cheaper than I remembered.
Afterwards, I attempted to wander in the direction of Naramachi, an old charming neighborhood, but got distracted by a window selling croquettes. Okay, so I am just eating tons today… and drinking a lot of soda. After that short break, I ventured into Naramachi and found a couple of privately run museums that were not only open (on a Monday when they would otherwise be closed), but had free admission. It was a charming neighborhood, but 4-5 hours of walking around were starting to catch up to me.
I swung back towards Nara Park for another opportunity to get some good pictures with deer and even sprung to buy a packet of deer biscuits. Their laziness outweighs their greed. If you mill about, they will continue to pester you for more, but if you walk away briskly they will give up chasing you after a few meters. Cool.
| Breakfast | 168 |
| Melon Cream Soda | 100 |
| Toshodaiji | 600 |
| Ice Cream Sandwich | 390 |
| Japanese Cider | 100 |
| Croquettes (2) | 250 |
| Deer Biscuit | 150 |
| Dinner (Salad + Sushi) | 600 |
| Total: | 2358 JPY (150.9 RMB) (USD 22) |
Running Total: 32652.2 RMB (USD 4752.36)
Daily Average: 308 RMB (USD 44.83)