We’ve just arrived back at our luxurious digs, after an early evening stroll around the parks and temples of Nara. We’re stopping here at the city’s flagship hotel (as have many of Japan’s royal family), before heading off to Kyoto tomorrow. We’re here for only two reasons - one to stay in this hotel (check) and the other to visit Todai-Ji Temple, specifically the Daibutsu-Den hall which contains the largest bronze Buddha in the world.

We were quite late getting out into the local area, after getting a bit confused on the train system (very easy to do on local trains) and arriving much later in Nara than we intended. However, this had a positive knock on effect - the parks were virtually empty. It apparently gets very busy here during the day as foreign and local tourists descend on here in droves. All the halls were closed at this point, but the lack of people did make our gentle amble far more enjoyable.

Ornate lanterns appear to be to order of the day here - there are a fantastic array of traditional lighting lining the paths and scattered in the woods nearby. Tame deer also appear to be as ubiquitous here as the were in Miyajima (probably due to the invention of “deer biscuits”, of which you can buy from stalls to feed them).

It was getting quite dark, so we made a beeline to the tourist area for food. True to form and despite the many native options, we managed to find ourselves an Italian restaurant which served some excellent grub. It was quite odd to see the natives eating salad with chopsticks, but it actually looked like a really good way of doing it; the same couldn’t be said for the pizza itself though…

We’re going back to the parks in the morning to get a good look inside the Daibutsu-Den before heading off to Kyoto in the PM.