Friday - May 2 - Kyoto - Osaka - Nara

Oh the dilemma of where to go on our last day in Kyoto! Jenny and Rich (the foodies) are heading for Osaka. Mark and Jason are off to Hiroshima. April and I are undecided. I have what the kids call FOMO (fear of missing out). I really want to see Nara, but it is so fun hanging out with the kids and tomorrow we part ways. What to do? We decided at the last minute to join the foodies for at least part of the day and then try to squeeze Nara into the train ride back to Kyoto. So, we're off and running, literally, behind Jenny and Richard. We caught the train to Osaka, but got separated when Richard and I had to go back to the JR station to get an IC card for the subway. Finding April and Jenny took us an hour OMG and I felt like we had run a marathon. Turns out there are many ways to get to track #6 and we found almost all of them. Rule #1 - stick together. It takes less time.
Then the fun began as the portable MiFi lead us right to the Ramen Museum where we joined many children on field trips to make our own Ramen. Felt like a kid myself. Jenny confessed that she lived on ramen for several of her teenage years. Who'd a thought.

Designing your own Ramen

This inventor of Ramen is a national hero here. They even have his golf clubs. We got to make our own cup of Ramen. Step 1 - buy a cup, Step 2 - wash your hands (I just love the Japanese and their hand washing obsession. I am bringing it home with me.) Step 3 - Leave the lid on your cup (we don't want germs in our ramen) and decorate it. Remember to date it. Now crank the wheel to add your ramen, then instruct the girl on your choice of 4 ingredients. Then the shrink wrap and the packaging which turns your cup of ramen into a happy little puffy purse!

Puffy gift bags for our Ramen

enjoying the Ramen shop

Next adventure, conveyor belt sushi and a place to sit. It was a mesmerizing and delicious experience which we shared and followed up with soft ice cream. $40 for all the sushi the four of us could eat. I might be dreaming about this in the future. 

Sushi on the move!

By now I can tell that I won't be able to keep up with this foodie team and I should head back for Kyoto by way of Nara. My roomie April agrees and we head for the JR station without MiFi. Lovely experience as we were helped by a gracious janitor and several security/station agents. Yes, we caught the train and sauntered up the hill for the deer park. April and I walk at the same speed which is delightful. We even stopped to shop. We found lovely bracelets and the very nice store keeper gave us a discount along with a free and very tiny glass "bambi". Then I found Matthew's soft Samurai sword (that squeaks!) and we continued on our way.

April and I were thrilled to find the deer very calmly grazing around the park in Nara and willing to come right up to you and sniff your hand. We didn't make it all the way to the shrine as "leisurely" was our goal. The Kofuku-ji Temple was a lovely pagoda structure and there were strange flat stones on a mound near the temple that I couldn't figure out. There was a man standing very still on one?? It's tough to be in Japan without an English guide. It leaves a lot to the imagination and the Google God.

Kofuku-ji Temple

Deer of Nara

Gates of local residence

We did manage to wander through some old streets of Nara on the way back to the train station and found a seat (yeah) on the way home (to Kyoto). April suggested I buy breakfast tonight, so we stopped at the grocery store for some food. My plan is to catch the Nara train tomorrow and hike through the "gates" of Fushimi Inari Shrine on my own before Richard and I catch the train to Matsumoto. I think the foodies will be sleeping in because they got back to the room about 11.