Sun, 26 Feb 2023
Today is our last day in Osaka. Given that our flight is late in the evening, we planned for a quick day trip to Nara in the morning.
We went to the train station early, grabbed breakfast as we walk, and headed to Nara.
Upon arriving in Nara, we had a quick coffee as we can feel the cold weather blowing from outside.
From the train station in Nara, we walked through Higashimuki Shopping Street. It’s a covered shopping arcade featuring restaurants, souvenir shops, and various other shops.
At the end of Higashimuki arcade, we exited into the open street and saw Nakatanidou. It is a famous mochi shop where they make fresh mochis daily. We got the chance to observe them making a fresh batch of mochis and bought it while its hot!
Our walking path in Nara is shown in the map above. We started from the train station (the red structure on the left) and headed south to Nakatinidou before heading towards the park. As we entered the park area, we encountered a herd resting near the temple.
The girls were very excited to see the deer. We purchased some deer crackers from a nearby stall but I guess the deer must have had a lot of those.
We spent some time feeding the deer and looking at the historical temples before making our way back. It was very cold so we were quite keen to be indoors.
After we arrived in Osaka city, we stopped by NU Chayamachi mall. It was the same place we visited for breakfast the day before. While everyone was doing some light shopping, I went to a nearby McDonald’s. I’ve been wanting to see the different burgers they have in Japan. I decided to try one of the chicken burgers. The restaurant was clean, the people were orderly, and quality of food was good.
By comparison, the worst and dirtiest fast food joints I’ve seen are the ones in the UK and US. The ones I went to were full with homeless people and violent drunkards.
Our flight back was in the evening. We arrived at Kansai Airport roughly 2 hours prior to departure.
I returned the portable wifi by dropping into the postbox. This is one of the things I love about wifi rentals in Japan. They make it very easy to rent and return the device.
Osaka was fantastic. The kids had a lot of fun too. Looking forward to more Japan trips in the future!
Related posts: Osaka 2023 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8
Imran Jaafar 