Our adventure today took us to Nara - a 45 minute Shinkansen trip from Kyoto - our current base. The very helpful lady in tourist information plotted a four hour walking tour for us, which we followed with primary school obedience, leading us through some of the most historic shrines and sites accessible to Nara visitors (outside one of which Ruth can be seen above).
Nara itself is beautiful, and well worth the visit. Though not designed for visits by people like ourselves (signage is mostly in the local language) it is, nonetheless, quite easy to navigate and full of ancient treasures deserving of a viewing. As a bonus, the park which houses most of these treasures is populated by an unassuming herd of about 1,200 deer. These deer wander about seemingly unperturbed by the footfall and photography of tourists. Lovely stuff.
For dinner we visited the hotel's buffet - complete with all you can eat, and better still for these Emerald Islers - all you can drink - benefits. Tomorrow we're taking a tour of Kyoto - the place is too big to traverse independently in one day, so we're taking the easier route through a guided coach tour.
Anyhow, we'll tell you all about it tomorrow.
Ciarán and Ruth
