Day 12 - Nara/Kyoto

This morning we had breakfast at the Kyoto station - they have all these amazing cafes with bread goods that I have never tasted before. I will miss all these yummy treats when we leave!!! After eating we hoped a train to Nara for a little day trip. The train ride was maybe an hour, not very long. We rented some bikes so we could get around pretty easily and get it all done in a reasonable time.

Riding through the town was fun. I had pictured a small town but it looked just like all the other ones until we ventured into the park, then it looked like what I thought it would. There were deer there too, actually they were everywhere. some would come p and nibble on your shirt or pocket in hopes you'd feed them - crazy!

First on our list was to see some shrines and the giant Buddah all of which were in this giant park... it's a lovely area and really easy to navigate on the bike. The Buddah was my favorite, it is so large and just amazing to see. I think Jeff and I each took 50 or so pictures.

After seeing the shrines and riding through the park we decided to ride through the shopping/food area. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe and had some yummy food as always. Then it was back to the station to retunr the bikes and catch our train at 5:40pm.

Tonight we decided to visit another onsen but a nicer one outside of town a bit. After chilling in the room for a bit we packed up our bath supplies and headed to North Kyoto around 8pm to a small neighborhood. We wandered and wandered trying to find this place... We asked a woman and she said to go straight... so we did... but then Jeff thought that we had either gone to far or were going in the wrong direction. We cut into the neighborhood and wandered... no luck. Jeff asked a girl for help and she told us to hold on by gestering to wait a min and went and got her father (Gaijin! Gaijin!), he came out along with the son and mother in their PJ's to try and help us. They also said to go back to where we were and go straight... Ok, back to where we where. I then told Jeff about how my friend Christine told me that the Japanese will help you no matter what sometimes even if they don't know and it's good to ask 3 times and go with the majority. So I went into a Family Mart and asked the guy and he also said to go straight but added "Supa!" and made a big motion... I said ok and straight we went...

Then low and behold, 4 blocks down by a large supermarket was the onsen! Horray!! This place was amazing. It looks like the Nordstrom on Onsens. It's fancy, clean and very relaxing. Get ready for it... It cost only $10 to get in for the whole day... They are open till 1am! It has a men and womens side and eeach side has 10 or so tubs/pools/relaxation areas. This place was so swanky but filled with families and everyday people. (I will say that people did look at me a bit more here. There was one other foreigner there and said said hi to me... Noone else did.) They just go there to relax. It also has massage chairs all over the place and massage available. Jeff and I signed up for that which was 6350 yen a person, roughly about $65 for an hour. When I was up for my massage the woman showed me a piece of paper she had written down "where is tender place" - I showed her my shoulders and lower back. She worked it out for sure, it was an amazing massage and I was fully clothed on a mat.

We walked out of there after 2 hours having spent maybe $150. You couldn't get out of Nordstrom Spa for that little for 2 people for all that we did. I wish we could have stayed longer but we were worried that we would have no train available back to our hotel.

We headed out of there at about 11ish and thankfully the JR rail was running but the subway wasn't. Once back in Kyoto we had to walk aways back to our hotel but that was ok. It was pretty late when we got back so it was Family Mart for dinner... sandwiches from the cooler. You may laugh but the food that comes out of those places here is just as good as most places. We have had no bad food here yet. :)

Another great day!!

I'm trying to upload pictures so stay tuned!!