Day 4 - Nara and Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

Honestly, Kyoto Station is so far, the most confusing station I have ever come across. I mean who puts a train track straight through the centre on the ground floor, with no simple way to go around? ... *frown*new experiences!

So today we too the train to Nara, known for the giant buddha temple and of course, the tame deer! These are protected by law and so friendly, you shouldn't touch them but you can feed them with special deer-food discs which you can buy from the stalls. Now what makes these deer even more special is the fact that they have been trained for generations to bow at humans to be gifted with food, so when you bow, they bow, they get food. This was so much fun to experience personally.

We decided not to visit the buddha this time, as I have already seen it, but we did go through the huge entrance gates and get greeted by smaller buddha statues either side. Nara park is just so beautiful. After a much-needed ice cream it was back to Kyoto for our next venture - Arashiyama.

Arashiyama is home to a beautiful Bamboo forest, which again is such an insane experience. When I think of bamboo, I think of the tiny thin things in our garden to hold the roses up, or taller ones to create an outdoor 'screen', but the see growing bamboo at this height is just insane, I wonder if one day, one of these will become my tooth brush. Meh, probably not.

We also stumbled across what I assume is a prayer area, with lots of stone towers made by those who pass by, I picked out my favourite one in the image below. I would take credit for it, but I don't want anymore bad things to happen haha.

By evening I was very hungry, so found a lovely restaurant in a mall by Kyoto station, and I had wagyu soy steak with rice, why is this not in the UK?!?! Glorious and fully recommend.

Now for an earlier night and pack up for the next bullet train journey - See you tomorrow Hakata (Fukuoka)!

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