From Teacher to Sensei: Golden Week: Nara and Osaka

On our third day of Golden Week, we decided to take a break from Kyoto. We spent the first half of the day traveling to Nara. Nara has many old temples.The main attraction being the biggest Buddha in Japan. I was also super excited to see the wild deer in Nara Park nearby.

On the way to Todai-ji, the temple where the daibutsu is housed, you have to walk through Nara Park. As soon as we crossed into the park, I saw the deer. I thought they looked so cute! It was so cool that they were just wandering the park amidst the people and laying out in the grass.

See? What could be wrong with them?

There were vendors selling crackers that that you could feed them. I bought a pack thinking it would be fun. Then the deer turned evil. As soon as I had the crackers, they started coming at me. They were even biting my legs to get s cracker. It was funny but a little bit scary!

Go away deer!

My aunt and Uncle bought a cracker pack and actually had a deer follow them all the way through the park. It was really funny! I couldn't believe that this deer was crossing the street and following us for a good two minutes before it gave up.
We finally got to Tdai-ji and were greeted by the largest wooden structure in the world.

It was huge!

We ventured inside and saw the immense statue of the Buddha. It was so interesting. Although when all is said and done, I must say that I like the daibutsu in Kamakura better since it is outside. Although they were built around the same time, the 1200s.

There it is.

We still had the whole afternoon and night after seeing the Buddha so we headed to Osaka. I was really excited to go to Osaka mainly so I could EAT! Osaka is a foodies dream and the birth place of some of my favorite Japanese foods: okonomiyaki and takoyaki. They have this famous eating street where you walk down and the whole thing is lined with vendors selling only different types of takoyaki. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I started to eat in Osaka, we visited the Osaka castle which is one of the biggest in Japan. It offered a wonderful view of Osaka and also gave us a great Japanese history lesson.

Some perspective on the castle

I'm eating takoyaki in front of Osaka castle. So happy!

The view of Osaka

After visiting the castle, we headed to the famous eating street, dontonbori. It was awesome! I ate so much delicious food and different types of takoyaki: regular, cheese, pizza. We took a break from eating to take pictures with the famous running man. I imitated the pose and had a couple of Japanese people take photos of me. Overall, it was a pretty cool day.