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This morning we decided to go and visit Nara, the first capital of Japan. First we had to learn to use the subway, the stop of Higobashi is conveniently located opposite the door of our hotel. After some difficulty using the ticket machines (apparently here you put your money in first and then decide what you want) we bought day tickets and we were off the Umeda station which connects to the JR lines out of the city. We used our trusty JR rail passes to get to Nara, a train ride that took approximately forty five minutes.
Once we got there we went in the tourist information, the lady there spoke English and was very helpful and pointed out that we should go to Nara Park as this is where most of the attractions were. We headed off down the main street, stopping to look in shops, it's a lot more expensive here than in Miyajima or Hiroshima. We reached the park and went up to look at the temples. There was a five story pagoda and another temple, housing a giant Buddha, with some other fearsome looking idols. As in Miyajima, deer were everywhere, although you could buy food and feed them here so they were less inclined to try to eat your clothes.
We walked around this area a bit more, before heading to another temple which was quite a hike and if I'm honest probably not worth the walk. We then headed back to the station, stopping on the way to enjoy our Christmas dinner of KFC, which is apparently what Japanese people think westerners do for Christmas. I had a four piece meal which came with a scone and maple syrup, interesting.
I fell asleep for a bit on the way back on the cosy well heated train, probably a good thing as we got horribly lost at the huge station trying to get back to the Yogobashi line to get our train back to the hotel. None of the signs and directions seemed to make any sense, a different way of thinking, just like Russia I think.
We eventually made it our one stop back to the hotel and sat down and had a rest for a bit before going out an having a coffee. I had a huge caramel latte and Darren and had a peppermint hot chocolate. After our lovely coffee we got back on the subway and went back to Umeda station to attempt to get to the giant red TEP Ferris wheel which overlooks the entire city. We did have a better look around the station which is embedded into a giant shopping centre, which was all dressed up for Christmas. It was almost like a western wonderland for Japanese people. They were serving German beer, hot dogs, pizza and they even had an ice rink.
We managed to find the shopping centre the Ferris wheel was in and took the elevator up to the 7th floor to board it. We almost didn't go on it because the queue was very long and my feet were very sore. We did persevere and I'm glad we did. It was an awesome experience looking out over the bright lights of Osaka in our own private little carriage. The size of the city really hit me at this point, skyscrapers as far as they eye could see and so many colours and pretty lights.
After disembarking the Ferris wheel, we looked around the shops again before heading back to the hotel for the night.
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Mum Sounds like fun. Different way to spend Christmas day!