From Osaka to Kyoto - First stop Nara Deer Park

The previous post in this series is here..

One of my contributions to this trip planning was an idea to just go from Osaka to Kyoto through a Viator bus tour with three stops on the way. If you are constrained for time this is a great idea as you get a guide for three important places.

We were pros at the breakfast area on Day 3 in the Toyoko Inn as the menu was the same. We went back up to the rooms to get our luggage and it was supposed to be a 15 minute walk to the bus pickup point. The pickup said 8:30. I suggested we leave early and we did leave early. What we saw there was similar to the National Geographic video of Antarctic penguins returning home and everyone trying to find their family all at once.

There were 20 plus buses on the side of the street with guides having flags, close to a 1000 people jostling on the pavement with all their luggage trying to find their guide and bus. The penguins had it easy!

Eventually we found the guide, walked back towards the hotel to our bus and got in. The guide was a Chinese guy who spoke good English. He said it was going to be a long drive to Nara and folks who wanted to sleep can. So I dozed off till we were almost at Nara.

Once we got off the bus we went to the deer park. We got a crash course on handling the deer and the brave ones paid and got deer biscuits to feed the deer. My first attempt did not go well as an aggressive deer bit me in the stomach through my shirt. We put some hand sanitizer on it and kept going. The second attempt was better as a few deer behaved and bowed before accepting the biscuit.

As a group we had fun!

After the deer we went to visit a smaller temple near the parking lot. We were told that there is a giant buddha temple 20 minutes walk away but we will have to come back from Kyoto separately as it was a half day affair to visit that temple complex. We made a note of that and got back on the bus..

Here is a video highlight reel..

The next stop was something else..

The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!

Teamlab Botanical Garden - Osaka

The previous post in this series is here..

Right after checking in at the Tokyo Inn in Osaka Namba, we went to the room, dropped our luggage and came down in 20 minutes. We had booked tickets at 7PM to see the light show at the Teamlab Botanical garden. It was supposed to be a short train ride but we were still new to the train business in Japan. You come 20 seconds late and the train is gone! These guys are very very very very punctual.

Also the same train station has many entrances and exits and if you don’t listen to your smart kids and haven’t figured out Japanese coins, buying tickets can take time at every machine.

We did barely manage our ride to this place and walked a good 20 minutes to the entrance of this Ngai botanical garden. We thought we were late but turns out everyone gets a 7PM ticket for night light show. There were 200 people ahead of us in the line. We joined the moving line and walked through the light show.

It was fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are the pictures..

After the light show our jet lag started to show. So we walked back to the train station. It was a beautiful and pleasant evening. We took the train back to Osaka Namba. There was still leftover food from what we had packed. So we ate that and went to sleep.

A video clip of the Team lab visit..

The next morning we had to wake up early for breakfast and catch a train. Every day was going to be packed after this..