[RD] Exploring Japan

[warpus]

Day 13 - Nara

I woke up super early and jumped on a train to Nara, about an hour south of Kyoto. Nara is most famous for the many deer who live right in the city and coexist with its other inhabitants. According to legend, the god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the new capital. Ever since then the deer have been considered sacred, protecting the city and the country.

Nara was the capital of Japan 710 - 794 CE/AD, so the deer have been there for over a millenium.

I had booked an accommodation in a quaint wooden guesthouse. It got great reviews and was quite cheap, so I did not know what to expect. I'll probably have some pictures of it later, but for now you'll have to make do with this link.

This ended up one of my all-time favourite places to stay on my whole trip. The guesthouse is owned and administered by an elderly Japanese couple who are incredibly helpful and welcoming. One of the first things they did was take all the loose change I had accumulated at that point, count it for me, and exchange it for a much more manageable handful of bills. They looked after me, made sure I had all the information I needed, and were generally some of the nicest people I have ever met.

The flip-side of this was that they had very strict rules that you had to follow at the guesthouse. The walls were literally paper thin, so it was very important to be quiet, especially in the evening and at night. It was important to know where to take off your shoes, you weren't allowed to take food or drink into certain rooms, there were special flip flops for the bathrooms.. and there were other rules I can't remember. The whole inside of the house was so quiet and serene, and the old couple was so super nice, that I went out of my way to do things properly. The other travellers who were staying seemed to have similar ideas. This was great, because even though I was essentially staying in a room full of several bunk beds.. each bed separated from the others by a thin cover.. other people in adjacent rooms separated by a paper-thin wall.. Everybody was so quiet and courteous that it was just an amazing place to crash at after a long day. I liked this place quite a bit and would return there in a heartbeat

After I got everything sorted out at the guesthouse I packed my daypack and went off to explore the city.

 

[amadeus]

Day 13 - Nara

The sign says “Child Safety House” and I assume it’s for children who need a safehouse or to contact the police in an emergency. It looks like a joint project of the local board of education, police, and the 奈良市生活安全推進協議会, the Nara City Convention on Promoting Safe Living. That’s a mouthful!

 

[FriendlyFire]

The lack of meat skewers in those photos is very disturbing lol
Iam also a sucker for Edemame, those are delicious but I would have filled my stomach with mostly meats given the chance

 

[warpus]

The lack of meat skewers in those photos is very disturbing lol
Iam also a sucker for Edemame, those are delicious but I would have filled my stomach with mostly meats given the chance

One of the girls is vegetarian and the other one was ordering mainly vegetarian dishes as well. We didn't even know it was a yakitori restaurant at the time tbh, we were just ordering random things off the menu. There's no way I didn't order any skewers, but we were too busy eating, drinking, and chatting to stop and take pictures of everything

 

[warpus]

Nara Park

I only had one full day in Nara, so I had to make good use of my time. I read up on the best parts of town to check out the night before and got some great advice from my hosts.

It turns out that Nara Park is quite large and is adjacent to or contains many of the sights that would be of interest to me. It's also where most of the deer are, about 1,200 of them. The park and the surrounding greenspace take up about 660 hectares, or double the size of New York's Central Park. This is where I would spend most of my day.

On the way there I walked through a cozy street market. I have some pictures but there isn't really anything to show, other than this:

Over a hundred people get injured by deer every year in Nara, so you do have to be careful.

It wasn't too long before I ran into the first deer. It even seemed to be posing for a photo for me in front of the five story pagoda.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@warpus Can you tell me what your trip cost in total (about is fine)? Without airfare. How many days were you there?

 

[warpus]

@warpus Can you tell me what your trip cost in total (about is fine)? Without airfare. How many days were you there?

I did some math, and including the flight, all the accommodations, the rail pass, pocket wifi rental, and all of the big activities I booked that I can think of (sumo, baseball, etc.) it comes to almost exactly $3,000 USD

This does not include all the food and drink I consumed, which forms the vast majority of all other expenses that aren't included in that total. There might also be 1 night of accommodation I'm not including, but I'm not sure, and there's also stuff like souvenirs, postcards, some temples were like $5, $10, I took a $10 ferry, etc.

The average per night of all the accommodations was $65.66 USD. My cheapest room cost $15 (a capsule hotel in Tokyo), and my stay in Nara was actually only $24. My most expensive accommodation was $98 a night, It was a hotel I booked for 4 nights in Tokyo near the end of my trip. (edit: This information used to be wrong and used to refer to the wrong hotel and amount)

My return flight from Canada cost $737 USD and my 2 week rail pass cost $487 USD. The pocket wi-fi rental was $150

It's tough to say how much I spent on food and drink, but it was probably at least $40 a day on most days with some splurge days thrown in and a couple cheap days too. I wouldn't be surprised if it was overall somewhere in the $1,000 - $1,600 USD range for food and drink (mostly food)

So overall it was probably just under $4,600 USD including everything. That's for 22-23 nights in the country, plus the flying time.. altogether I used almost 4 weeks of vacation time for this trip

Spoiler :

edit: I added the spreadsheet I used to do my calculations. If I don't list a currency it could be either USD or CAD.. I assumed USD for my calculations in those cases. Currency conversions are also a bit off (probably), because I just used today's rates. They seemed close enough

I didn't mind doing all this math, because I was rather curious myself..

 

[Birdjaguar]

I did some math, and including the flight, all the accommodations, the rail pass, pocket wifi rental, and all of the big activities I booked that I can think of (sumo, baseball, etc.) it comes to almost exactly $3,000 USD

This does not include all the food and drink I consumed, which forms the vast majority of all other expenses that aren't included in that total. There might also be 1 night of accommodation I'm not including, but I'm not sure, and there's also stuff like souvenirs, postcards, some temples were like $5, $10, I took a $10 ferry, etc.

The average per night at all the accommodations I ended up paying was $65.66 USD. My cheapest room cost $15 (a capsule hotel in Tokyo), and my stay in Nara was actually only $24. My most expensive accommodation was $89 a night, this was for the first 8 nights in Tokyo, I booked this way in advance with "earlier money", so to me the trip seemed a bit cheaper.. although I know that's kind of cheating

My return flight from Canada cost $737 USD and my 2 week rail pass cost $487 USD. The pocket wi-fi rental was $150

It's tough to say how much I spent on food and drink, but it was probably at least $40 a day on most days with some splurge days thrown in and a couple cheap days too. I wouldn't be surprised if it was overall somewhere in the $1,000 - $1,600 USD range for food and drink (mostly food)

So overall it was probably just under $4,600 USD including everything. That's for 22-23 nights in the country, plus the flying time.. altogether I used almost 4 weeks of vacation time for this trip

For an overall price per day I think you did well: $200 a day in Japan! It is not a cheap place. I'd certainly spend more on hotels than you. Japan is on my list. Your experience/wisdom is a nice addition to my travel knowledge. Thanks for your threads. I'd do one on 30 days in China, but It might not be all entertaining.

Were your walking around videos, gopro or phone?

 

[warpus]

For an overall price per day I think you did well: $200 a day in Japan! It is not a cheap place. I'd certainly spend more on hotels than you. Japan is on my list. Your experience/wisdom is a nice addition to my travel knowledge. Thanks for your threads. I'd do one on 30 days in China, but It might not be all entertaining.

Were your walking around videos, gopro or phone?

The two most expensive hotels I booked in Tokyo ($98 and $89) for 12 nights total were actually quite nice. They were both 3 star hotels, but the service was really good, it was clean, the bed was comfortable, it was quiet, they had good restaurants.. The hotel in Osaka for like $50 was actually pretty nice too and Hiroshima as well, I had no complaints. I would def NOT recommend a $15 capsule hotel to anyone, but the $24 stay in Nara was actually quite nice and memorable in that really old house with strict rules. The bed was comfortable and I would do it again.

I mainly used my goPro for the videos, although some of the shorter videos you see in the beginning of the thread are from my phone

 

[Birdjaguar]

It's nice to know the hotels under $100 are OK. I might think about Air bnb though. I had good luck in England in one.

 

[FriendlyFire]

It's nice to know the hotels under $100 are OK. I might think about Air bnb though. I had good luck in England in one.

Manga Kissa are cheaper then Airbnb, they also come with unlimited drinks for those with a tight budget.
The small cubical space probably not so great if your a tall Gajin.

 

[amadeus]

If you want your own clean room at a reasonable price, the Super Hotel chain is good at around $50-60USD/night. Few frills and much smaller than American hotel rooms but that’s true across all hotels in Japan.

Netcafes do have showers and amenities, and some even have private rooms but really at that point a reasonably-priced hotel wouldn’t set you back more than what you end up paying at a netcafe with all the options!

 

[warpus]

The Deer of Nara

Nara Park is not fenced in, so the 1,200 deer who live there can go as they please. Here you can see one waiting to cross the street

Watch out for the deer though! They are usually friendly, but have the freedom to roam and be jerks to you if they feel like it. They are used to getting food from people, so if you have anything that looks or smells like it could be food, at some point a deer might just go for it

I had no food to give, but got licked anyway

 

[amadeus]

Watch out for the deer though! They are usually friendly, but have the freedom to roam and be jerks to you if they feel like it. They are used to getting food from people, so if you have anything that looks or smells like it could be food, at some point a deer might just go for it

Not even that but I've heard stories of the deer taking tourists' maps out of their back pockets. The deer are friendly enough but if they want to munch on something, they will! Good thing you were able to leave the city with your maps and wallet in one piece.

Here's another point about the Nara deer: trains from the Kintetsu railway company used to smack into them from time to time, causing delays and much-needed cleaning of the front ends of trains. The solution was to build a fence to keep them off the railway tracks, but in order to prevent the fence from being an impediment to their natural movement the company installed gates for the deer to pass through when there were no trains. Initially, I thought they did the same thing as they do for pedestrian or vehicle crossings where they have a post that comes down to keep them from crossing. I was wrong! Instead, the company installed these sound generators that put out a deer-sensitive frequency that keeps them away from the tracks when trains are passing. It seems to be working because I've never been on a train that's hit a deer. Then again, I'm also not on that particular line very often!

 

[warpus]

The Nandaimon Gate of Tōdaiji

Also known as the Great South Gate, this is the main entrance gate to the Great Buddha Hall. It is the largest temple entrance gate in Japan.

 

[warpus]

Tōdaiji

Tōdaiji is one of the original 7 great temples of Nara. It dates back to the 8th century.

The building you are looking at is known as the Great Buddha Hall

 

[warpus]

Tōdaiji (continued)

Inside the Great Buddha Hall is the The Great Buddha Statue, which weighs 500 tonnes. One of its knees contains a tooth of an emperor from the 8th century (Emperor Shomu), as well as other relics like his sword and some jewellery. This isn't visible to the eye, but has been recently confirmed using x-rays

Nearby are also Komokuten

and

Tamonten .. aka Bishamonten .. aka Vaiśravaṇa

Together they watch over the Great Buddha Hall

Then there was this

I chose to not participate...

 

[JohannaK]

What is that?

 

[warpus]

That is known as "Buddha's nostril" and is supposedly as large as one of the nostrils in the Great Buddha Statue.

It is fortold that those who manage to fit through it will get enlightenment in the next life. There was a long line though, and it looked a bit silly, and I thought I might get stuck..

 

[JohannaK]

It doesnt look very large, no.