Spectacular Japan and South Korea, Part 8
Monday, July 28 Day 7 Nara and Osaka
Kintetsu train Kyoto-Nara
Lunch: Playpen Friends Ramen
Check in to Candeo Hotel Shinsaibashi
Dinner: pivotOne Dotonbori
Stroll in Dotonbori District
The next morning seemed to start off smooth… we got ready, packed up, and checked out of the Airbnb. We called a GoTaxi to Kyoto Station, and (we THOUGHT) bought tickets for the Kintetsu Line Limited Express to Nara. But turns out, a) we hadn’t bought the tickets….exactly, and b) apparently we found the SINGULAR place in our entire Japan experience that was just a tiny bit disorganized! The ticket machine sold us two tickets for the kids for Kintetsu (purchased with their kids Suica cards), while Dr. Spouse and I just tapped in with our phone. We headed into the gates, and onto the train. But then, we noticed the train was sort of fancy, with plush seats that had car and seat numbers, and overhead announcements said that all passengers needed to have assigned seats…. We were puzzled. How would we have assigned seats by tapping in with Suica cards? Feeling uncertain, we quickly asked a rail employee, who hastily gestured “no no, you’ve done it wrong!” and ushered us off the train. Of course we were a little flustered - but figured no big deal, maybe what we’ve paid for is like a local subway line that goes to Nara, without seat assignments? So we raced over to another platform, studied the map, and said “hmm, this must be it, it passes through Nara?” We jumped onto a train (looked like a typical Sunday car, with bench seating along the sides, and tons of overhead handles and bars to hold. But… again it felt off. We had specifically tapped into the Kinetsu gates, and this wasn’t a Kinetsu train. Also, it was going to be stopping at like 15 different stations along the way to Nara, and was going to take over an hour and fifteen minutes. Geez! That’s a long time. Was there some other way? Yet again, we jumped off this train before the doors shut (phew) and found two other rail employees to ask. They were more patient with us and said “you need X train, go in the office and ask them to sell you this specific ticket, and then come back and we‘ll help you board the right one. So I stood with the kids while Dr. Spouse headed to the ticket office to explain the situation… he returned with four tickets in hand, but a funny look on his face. Something seemed odd about these tickets too. They weren’t the ones the guys had said. This time, instead of running to a platform, we went straight back to the helpful guys and showed them, and one of them just laughed and said “no, those guys sold you the wrong one!” but he offered to accompany Dr. Spouse back to the office and oversee that the counter agent rebooked us on the right one at no additional cost - this was super nice of him. In the end, after this fourth attempt - Dr. Spouse reappeared triumphant, with the new tickets in hand, and the two officers waved to us as we rolled out of the station, sitting in the seats fave they has personally ensured we had found.
The look of confused tourists, knowing we are in the wrong place, but not knowing how to make it right!
The whole ordeal probably only took 15-20 minutes, but it was a blip of confusion and sweaty hustle going back, forth and all around till we were on the literal right track 😂 but we eventually got there. We sunk into our seats on the comfy Nara train, and spent the ~40 minute ride there just relaxing and unwinding from that stressful experience.
We arrived in Nara around 10 am, excited to see all the deer-related marketing and signage, and said “let’s look for some coin lockers.” Well, if Nara’s Kintetsu station has nothing else, it’s got lockers out the wazoo. There are typical coin lockers, and also these more fancy, credit card-enabled lockers that offer you a printed QR code as your key to lock/unlock, and all lockers come in all variety of sizes. A station employee eyed us rummaging for change in our bag, and quickly led us to the digital locker area, where he then proceeded to find us one locker big enough for all four of our carry-on wheeled suitcases, and all four of our backpacks. He then Tetrissed all our stuff in there himself to make it fit, and helped us create a QR code key for them. Super helpful! We want to give a shoutout to this guy, whose efficiency and command of his info made up for the confusion and mixed messages of the rail ticket office in Kyoto 😂
We then sat down at a café for a quick cool beverage and some snacks in the Nara Station, before heading out into the mid-morning sun and heat….
We decided to walk in the direction of the Todaiji Temple, via Nara Park - and it wasn’t more than a few moments till we saw our first deer, a full-grown adult male with antlers, just hanging out on the city sidewalk, seeming so out of place among concrete buildings and traffic lights. But there he was! Of course within minutes, we were absolutely surrounded by deer - and we were also in the more green and spacious park area, where throngs of tourists were standing tickled and enthralled by even more throngs of tawny, wide-eyed deer of all ages and ilks.
There were cute, wobbly-legged baby deer, and elegant, ladylike adult does…. There were large, dark tan adult male deer with sets of antlers ranging from sparse to downright massive. We saw one VERY old looking male buck, who Ten instantly called “Gramps”. Impressive! A few carts were along the walkway with street sellers bending out deer crackers for like ¥300 a cup or something - we chose not to buy any, because we noticed that the moment a tourist had a cup of crackers in their hands, the deer would just SURROUND them and get super aggressive trying to compete with each other for the crackers… parents who had bought crackers for their kids to feed the deer instantly would have to run and shield their panicked, crying kids from pushy, bucking deer - kind of felt like the exact opposite of the fun, peaceful animal encounter that one would hope for. So we said no thanks to deer crackers. But the deer were gentle and patient with us - they could tell we had nothing on offer, but most of them would let us stroke their heads or backs briefly if we wanted to. They’re not afraid of humans at all.
So like this, petting and watching deer, we spent our 10-15 minute blazing hot walk to the Todaiji Temple. Even the deer confirmed to us that it wasn't in our heads - yes, it was just THAT hot. They were all huddled together under any tree, awning, or shade-giving object that they could find.
Once arriving there, we purchased tickets for entry to the Great Buddha Hall, opting to skip the museum nearby - and we walked over to this behemoth of an old, wooden structure (super impressive!) till we were casting eyes upward at the huge bronze Buddha in front of us - about 15m in height, and just gorgeous. We spent several minutes here just admiring.
It was close to noon now, and although we had wanted to maybe check out the Horyu-ji Temple after lunch also (the oldest Buddhist temple in all of Japan) - the sun was pretty much unbearable at this point, and we knew it would be an exhausting walk if we were to go there, then have to head back to the train station (opposite sides of the huge rectangle of Nara Park). So we decided to head to lunch then go straight to the train station. We found a ramen place with plenty of vegan options called Playpen Friends (cute but random name), and practically ran in to escape the heat. The choices at this restaurant ALL sounded delicious, and it was hard to decide what to order! The kids ended up ordering a chicken ramen in chicken broth base, which they declared was delicious. Dr. Spouse got the tofu ramen in shoyu base, and I got the vegan shoyu-tonkotsu base, which was awesome. I cleaned my entire bowl.
We sat for a few minutes, just loathe to leave the cool A/C, but soon it was time to rally. We gassed ourselves up, reminding ourselves that we would get to see the cute deer again on our way back - that put a little spring back in our step!
Ten minutes and several hundred cute deer later, we were back at the Nara-Kintetsu station, and we had put together along the way that the train line for Osaka that we needed would leave not from that same station, but another one nearly 1.5 miles away! So we retrieved our luggage from the locker, and headed back to the exit to get a taxi to that station, the JR Nara station. Got there quickly, and then found the train bound for Osaka. We figured out while on board that we could exit at the Tennoji stop and cab it to our hotel, and it would be slightly shorter than Osaka central station. So we exited at Tennoji, and found a cab to take us to our new digs for the night, the Candeo Hotel Shinsaibashi. Dr. Spouse could not pronounce Shinsaibashi to save his life, which made the kids giggle maniacally….
This hotel chain appears to service primarily an Asia-based tourist crowd (tourists from China, Korea, etc.). The decor in the lobby and common areas, and even in the rooms, looked updated and styled in a modern way, but I could kind of tell that the building itself was maybe old. The concierge was polite and efficient, but we got a sense that the amenities of the hotel were kind of minimal - for example, there isn't a full-service on-site restaurant (not that we need one), and they do offer a breakfast buffet but it only opens at 7:30 am, which would be too late for us on our day of check-out, since we had to leave a little earlier to make our flights. We don't really love staying in hotels like this, but it was only for one night, and it was serviceable enough for us.
One interesting thing about the hotel - there is a small, fully-functioning Buddhist temple basically nestled in the entryway! Rather, apparently the Buddhist temple existed even before the hotel was built - but when they designed the hotel, they worked with the temple and decided to integrate it into the design of the hotel. That was sort of unique.
We were at the hotel at 3 pm on the dot, and while we had only expected to store our bags and go off to Osaka Castle directly, the concierge informed us that our room was actually ready for check-in - so we took bags directly there, dropped them off, then left again. We got some ice cream across the street from our hotel in a chic-looking gelateria - the kids got strawberry swirl cones, while Dr. Spouse and I got a delicious vanilla honey cup with real bits of honeycomb in it!
We then caught a taxi to Osaka Castle and made the long walk within the grounds to the ticket counter. After purchasing the ticket, we headed to the top and then made our way down each floors’ exhibits, which were informative about the way that Hideyoshi Toyotomi ascended to power as a peasant in feudal society, and unified Japan. We really liked the holographic, animated exhibit panels illustrating important moments from Toyotomi's life.
It was about 4:30 now, and we were all feeling the effects of a day of chaotic trains, walking in the peak midday heat, and general fatigue. So we headed back to the hotel, and the kids were excitedly hoping to check out what they thought was a swimming pool. Wellll…. So technically, it isn’t a pool, but an onsen (traditional Japanese public bath). It was open to all guests, including children, but the deal is, one must participate in onsen the traditional way, by entering the single-sex locker room, removing and storing all one’s clothes, then taking a full shower - before entering the pool completely nude. Upon hearing this, bashful Ten was immediately not interested, and plopped down on the bed with his iPad without a second thought to the pool. Dr. Spouse offered to take the boys, and he took reluctant-but-curious Twelve there to check it out - but they returned quickly, with Twelve announcing that he wasn’t feeling the vibes 😂. I couldn't blame them I guess - they're preteens, and self-consciousness is a given at that age. And this was maybe asking more cross-cultural adventure than they were ready for. I was personally tempted to go to the women's side, but then laziness prevailed.
So we all just vegged out and rested in the room a little while. Dr. Spouse and I went downstairs to a nearby coffee shop and got some café drinks and cookies to take back to the room. Some time around here, he started complaining of a headache, and unfortunately would spend the rest of the evening not feeling too hot. We did head to dinner in the eye-popping crowds of Dotonbori, opting to dine at Pivot One, a vegan café featuring vegan and gluten-free toyomiyako (traditional fried octopus balls, topped with sauces and mayo). I was excited to try a vegan version of this well-known street food!
The kids and I ate well, but poor Dr. Spouse’s headache was going strong and he had no appetite at all. Concerned for him - we decided to head home on the quicker side, which was probably just as well because the crowds out in the streets of Dotonbori were thicker than ever. I didn’t mind not having more time out there - but wowww, I took pics on the way back just to chronicle the craziness of Osaka! Who knew that Osaka was the clean, polite little Japanese love-child of New Orleans and Las Vegas?!!
I did a little train research, and set alarms to wake up early the next day for repacking purposes - because we would be bidding beautiful Japan goodbye, and heading to Kansai airport in the morning, for our flight…. to Seoul!!!
