Holy Deer

The early bird catches the worm or is ahead of the entire tour groups at the sights. Getting up this early is almost worse than going to work. One needs a vacation after the vacation.

Today our plans include history, a visit to a sake brewery, famous mochi, and shopping.

But first, here are a few facts to get you warmed up:

Nara, once the capital of Japan in the 8th century, is now a large city with about 370,000 inhabitants, located in the south of Honshū, the main island. The city is especially known for its historical temples and mischievous Sika deer. These cute animals, who bow before their visitors, are a popular attraction in Japan's vacations. They are considered sacred, allowed to roam freely in Nara, and have shaped the cityscape for centuries.

After a typical Japanese hotel breakfast, we start our journey to Tōdai-ji, home to the Great Buddha Hall. 

Until recently, it was the largest wooden building in the world, measuring 57 m wide, 47 m high, and 50 m long. Currently, an exhibition hall in Osaka is larger in area. The hall houses a gigantic bronze statue of the Buddha, which is 14.98 m tall and weighs 452 tons, sitting on an 18 m high pedestal.

Also remarkable is the entrance gate (Nandaimon) from the year 1199 with its two approximately 8.5-meter tall guardian statues (Niô). 

The Tōdai-ji complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It’s quite amusing to see Sika deer wandering everywhere,

they are looking for something to eat, and if you don’t have anything, they just trot on.

The complex is huge and the Japanese love stairs. So, we walk through the complex under the blazing sun.

By noon, we've seen enough, although there is still much more to see, we decide to head to the sake brewery now. The way was already hardcore. 

Thank goodness we have our umbrellas - they are worth their weight in gold.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t tour the brewery itself, but the sake tasting was quite nice as well.

Facts:

Sake is an alcoholic beverage brewed from polished rice in Japan. The clear or milky drink contains about 15-20% alcohol. The production of sake is similar to that of beer, as starch must first be converted into sugar for alcoholic fermentation. The alcohol content of sake is higher than that of wine from grapes. Sake accounts for about 4% of Japanese alcohol consumption.

We were able to try 5 different sakes. 

Two tasted quite good, and we bought them right away. Let’s see if they taste as delicious at home.

Now we have to walk another kilometer through the sweltering heat to get to Nakatanidou. 

I discovered this shop by chance on Instagram. Here, the rice dough for mochi is still pounded by hand.

Mochi, a traditional Japanese rice cake filled with sweet bean paste. They are traditionally made in Japan from glutinous rice “Mochigome,” from which the name is derived. 

The green color and refreshing taste come from Yomogi, a Japanese wild plant known as mugwort. The strong pounding results in incredibly soft Yomogi mochi, which is dusted by hand with kinako, roasted soy flour.

Each rice cake contains a generous filling of red bean paste. 

The sweet and gooey texture of the red bean nicely complements the Yomogi flavor.

Yummy 😋😋 they were delicious.

To escape the sun, we stroll through a shopping arcade.

It’s soooo warm and my feet hurt soooo much.

Siesta in the hotel - a great idea. Said and done.

Hunger returns in the evening since we only had 2 ice creams since breakfast, driving us back out into the heat. The rain during our siesta didn’t provide any coolness.

Today I get to decide what we eat, and I choose okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki are pancake-like dishes seasoned with a special okonomiyaki sauce and katsuobushi (dried and shredded tuna).

The restaurant I picked was unfortunately closed, but we only found out when we got there. We keep looking - the next restaurant was unfortunately full, so we kept searching and finally found a traditional small cozy family restaurant with 2 tables and 8 seats. 

I knew exactly what I was going to eat - the vegetarian version without egg, and Shahaatz opted for beef with soba noodles. 

As a starter, we try grilled rice balls (which were big triangles that were quite difficult to eat with chopsticks) and skewers with grilled chicken thigh. 

We could have also ordered skewers with chicken…

• Hearts
• Skin or
• Cartilage

but no, that seemed too ordinary for us.

But what we ordered was super delicious again. Here, too, we were warmly sent off by the entire family.

Tomorrow we continue to Osaka.