Nara

From Mt Koya, we headed north-east towards Nara. Main highlight here was the Nara deer park that I have heard so much about.

Once we reached there it was about time for lunch, so we tried out this popular unagi (river eel) restaurant called Edogawa Naramachi. Well it looked popular on Tripadvisor and apparently they obtain very fresh unagi from the nearby lake, so we were tempted to try it. But honestly it tasted very average. The unagi had a slightly fishy taste to it and wasn't what we were expecting.

After lunch it was time to head to the deer park! So the Nara park is a public park that's quite big and has several attractions like shrines and castles. The main attraction is the 1,200 wild deer that roam the premises of the park. These deer are viewed as sacred and even cars give way to them when they are crossing the road. Lots of poop around the park (naturally) and they can be quite aggressive in wanting the food in your hands, especially sweet potato. Probably because the deer food that you can buy to feed them looks like recycled newspaper. The funny thing is that when you feed the deer and keep bowing, the deer will also keep bowing to you. Talk about manners!

Three other attractions in the park include the Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji and Kasuga Shrine.

Wakayama - Japanese Temple Stay

Whenever my family and I travel, we would normally rent a car as it is getting harder for them to walk long distances and not feel tired. Having a car also gives you a lot more freedom to visit many rural places. So naturally, we also rented a car for Japan this time.

The car rent cost us about 55,000 yen for 6.5 days including insurance, which works out to be about $650, or $25 per person per day. When renting a car, it is important to know that Japan charges toll fees for using its highways, so that can really add up.

Getting around in the car is pretty easy as they have a map code for every location in Japan that you can easily input in the GPS. You just have to search for the proper map code on your computer beforehand. Check out this link for a guide on map code.

Since my parents love to see fresh produce, they requested to visit a fish market if possible. Luckily, there was one on the way to our accommodation at night. So we headed over to Izumisano Fish Market after getting the car.

Things there are really fresh and cheap! Lots of seafood that go for half price compared to Singapore and plenty of seasonal fruits. My parents literally bought a carton of fruits to stock in the car for the next few days. Apples, oranges, etc. If buying the seafood was possible, I'm pretty sure my dad would have done that too.

Above the fish market is a nice restaurant that sells nice sushi and tempura. The ten don (prawn tempura) was immaculately fried with a nice golden hue and so juicy. Probably the best tempura that I have ever had and I have visited a few restaurants that specialize in tempura. The fact that it was located just above the fish market probably help with the freshness of the food.

So that was lunch, and afterwards was a long mountainous ride to our accommodation. We thought that it would be interesting to live at a temple for a night. The temple was Shojoshin-in and we booked it online. Crazy expensive though - cost us like SGD$120 per person per night. But my mum wanted to experience it so we went for it in the end. Located near Mt Koya, the temple had strict rules like checking in before 1730 hours in preparation for dinner. After dinner we slept early as you are also required to wake up to join the 6am prayer with the monks and have breakfast afterwards. An interesting experience no doubt, but I don't think I will pay that amount to do it again.