Japan Day 4 - Kyoto to Tokyo

Saturday, 30 December 2023

Our last morning in Kyoto had us checked out at 8am and at Kyoto central station shortly after where we put our luggage into storage lockers and got a local train for 45 minutes out to a region called Nara.

Nara was a nice break from the really busy tourist attractions in the city - it was a big park with lots of nice gardens and temples and other structures and most excitingly, lots and lots of deer which would bow to you if you bowed to them (and then fed them their deer snacks you could buy for $2 a pack).

Japanese gardens always remind me of Tasmanian alpine areas where we have little tarns and stunted bushes.

The temples were huge, as were the Buddha statues inside the temples.

There was no shortage of deer all around. It was very cute.

Back in Kyoto we retrieved our bags and found our way to the bullet train platform. They go between every 3 to 7 minutes - it's incredible.

Arriving in Tokyo we had our most stressful transfer to the subway yet - it was absolutely packed and we got so confused at the arrows and escalators and stairs everywhere.  Tensions were running high but we eventually found our way out of the bullet train part, and made it over to the subway line for an uneventful trip out to our little apartment.  After settling in we went for a walk to find somewhere to eat - there are so many cute little places around - none of them cater at all for vegetarians so I ended up getting indian again from a little hole-in-the wall place while Jon and Jett ate various combinations of octopus and pig skin dishes and Zali had chicken.