Kansai Day 5 (24/10/07): Nara

Today we finally fulfilled our wish to see the tombs at asuka. this time we alighted at kashihara jingu n caught the 9.41 bus to the ishibutai tombs. the nara kotsu bus was diff from the kyoto city bus. while the kyoto city bus was flat fare (220 yen regardless of distance), the nara kotsu bus was according to distance. when u board the bus at the rear u take a ticket which has a number on it. this indicates the bus stop that u boarded at. above the bus driver there will be a panel with numbers on it. at each no. the fare will be indicated. so as the bus passes more and more stops, the fare will start increasing. when u alight, u drop the ticket plus the fare into a transparent container beside the driver. if u have no coins, fear not, u can change ur big notes for coins at a dispensing machine at the front of the bus.

we saw the ishibutai burial mound first. it was said to be the burial site of king ? but there is no longer anyone buried there now. it was just an empty space. we din spend a lot of time there, cuz we wanted to see the museum (Asuka Historical museum) so we took a long but leisurely walk along the countryside since the bus would only come half an hour later (see what i told u abt buses being very rare at the most ulu places?)

but i certainly din regret missing the bus cuz the walk was really enjoyable. the weather was cool, the air was nice and fresh and the countryside was really nice :) we passed patches of nice petit flowers, persimmon trees, a grapevine (which sold a bunch of grapes for 1000 yen = $12.8) and the occasional temple and also, half-red maple trees, which come to think of it are a nicer sight than all-red maple trees.

the japanese certainly rely a lot on integrity. at the grapevine there was no one tending to the grapes that were on display. they were probably expecting pple to put money down if they want to buy anything and not just take without paying.

Another feature of the roads here which we found quite amusing was the traffic lights. there were hardly any cars on the road and hardly anyone around (let alone crossing the road) yet the traffic lights take a very long time to change. and the cars all obediently stopped and waited. we were wondering why they even bothered to have traffic lights at all in the first place. when we were on the bus, at one point the bus stopped for close to 4 min and i asked JY what we were waiting for and she said, the traffic light.

just outside the tombs there was an ice cream vending machine. this was quite commonly found outside major temples, castles and shrines. i have already tried the cheesecake ice cream yesterday at Nara's Todaiji temple, today i tried the marron flavour (栗子) and it was surprisingly good! i am never a fan of 栗子 but i thought this was really nice. the cheesecake ice cream was very nice too. hmm... why is the ice cream here so nice?

we ate lunch at a small cozy eatery near the museum. we chose a table which was japanese style. that means the table was very low and we sit on cushions, cross legged. there was no menu, instead the item names were written on woodblocks hung on a wall, and they were all in japanese. actually i realized that if u dunno any jap at all, it is impossible for u to come to such places. if u can at least read the characters, it was still not so bad. also if u dunno any jap, it will be difficult for u to come to a place like Asuka whcih was in the suburbs and pple here prob do not know a word of English and it is quite impossible to get directions if u get lost. so i am very lucky to be travelling with a companion who is quite fluent in Jap as i had a chance to explore places which pple can't usually go.

anyway the eatery we had lunch at was probably the place the normal pple go to. like we saw some men who apparently worked in a construction site nearby and dropped in here for lunch. after lunch we visited the Asuka historical museum. it was exhibiting the various artefacts that were excavated from the tombs and temples. there was a famous takamatsuzuka tomb from which paintings on the walls were excavated and the Asuka tombs. there was also a huge collection from the Yamadadera (山田寺) such as the tiles, pillars, statues and sculptures. i kinda regretted not keeping up with my jap cuz i think it would have been quite interesting to read abt the history of these temples and tombs. now i struggled so hard to read thru one signboard and even then i din noe 80% of the words and i din understand 90% of it. so basically i din really know what i was looking at.

we went back to Osaka in the late afternoon and went to see Osaka-jo or osaka castle. it's not necessary to pay admission to go inside the castle if u juz want to take photos and enjoy the walk in the park. u can actually get quite close-up pics. the castle grounds was a good place for jogging, cycling or just strolling cuz the paths were so wide, u dun have to be worried abt knocking into pple (not like at east coast park on a saturday morning). the good thing abt the castle ( and a lot of other places here) is that the maps were plentiful. at any one time, u can look at a map and identify ur 现在地 (current position) then see how to navigate from there. there was one map on the castle grounds that had a place indicated that said 'the place where lordXXX and ladyYYY committed suicide' - hmm... sounds very juicy. but i din go and see the place.

we actually ate a very nice fish-shape pancake (this time it's big) at Tsuruhashi (where we changed from the kintetsu Nara line to the Osaka subway) and we both chose chocolate filling. once again the chocolate filling was thick and plentiful and creamy and the pancake was warm - so heavenly!

that night we decided not to go for proper dinner but to eat small little tidbits instead. we ate takoyaki (octopus ball) and okonomiyaki (some sort of pancake fried on teppan and has things like cabbage, meat in it). i still prefer the singapore version cuz i dun really like the whole octopus found inside the jap version. i still prefer flavours like ham and cheese, bacon and cheese :)

time flies... it's already been 5 days. why does time fly when u are on holiday?