Arrived in Osaka early morning. We landed early thanks to tail winds. As soon as I got my backpack off from the floor, I loaded my Sony Walkman with "World Order" and their wonderful "Machine Civilization" pumping into my Marshall headphones. I could not even miss that opportunity. OMG it was so perfect walking through for the first time a Japanese airport listening to..
The morning of machine civilization 赤い楯 影迷い 灰色の服纏い リズムに囚われた朝 いつもと同じ瞬間 止めない生産ライン 何かが欠けてる In the twilight of machinery
Passing through the custom was interesting; more hardcore than the US.. Two fingerprints plus photo op during the passport check and then a very polite (as everyone) custom agent asked to see what was inside my suitcase. That's actually a "first" - never happened to me before but why the heck not. In Macau, it was only the passport check that took time. In Indonesia.. Well, as we paid for "someone" to help us carry the luggage through customs, we got it easy while those who didn't hire local resources to carry their luggage, got a real check-through. Everything was freshly laundered and there was no used underwear he had to search through. Of course he didn't find anything suspicious but in the end - always nice to see the staff doing their job in a correct manner.
But the question was still left in my mind.. Which 5 companions would be in "our" group. As we landed early - there was no one from the travel agent to pick us up. And with multiple exists (North and South) at Osaka I wondered where to go. So I did the default thing and Stayed. If lost then don't move around. No one seems to cluster into a 5 person's group. But some seemed to migrate together after a while and then came the guide Hasse. (Hans Karlsson: http://mygalaxyis.me/). And I could participate in the group as it was those 5 strangers which were the rest of the group. (Yeay - I know that ONE person doesn't count as a group but what the heck, nothing is what is seems in Japan.)
Cool - started the visit in Japan the same way as I left Sweden; a visit to Starbucks!! After a "drink" we all collected our stuff and went for the Airport Shuttle to Nara. It was way to much to look at while travelling down the roads. Tried to envision scenes from all the movies I've seen but everything looked almost normal. Sunshine - cars - people. The main difference was that the cars were smaller and the printed text everywhere was unreadable. I felt dyslexic first but as I could not even recognize a single character I felt just like an illiterate barbarian - not knowing how to read or to behave.
First proper view of Osaka
The weather wasn't great so when we arrived at Nara Station with the Bus - we ended up in two cabs. (Ok, I walked the distance the day after and it wasn't that far to walk; but understandable with the weather combined with all our luggage). Dropped the bags at the Ryokan () and took off for a lunch nearby.
Kirin is goooood
Omnomnom 1
Ever so beautiful and tasty
Saw Nara Park and all deers. So from the restaurant we took a nice, slow walk uphill towards the Todaiji Temple, passing through the parks and all the wild(?) deers. They were all over and no so friendly. They ate "anything" and "everything". There was even warning signs everywhere about the dangers.
Continued to the Todaiji temple and it was HUGE! Even with the (not so) wild deers outside and all the people, it was still not crowded.
Hans, our guide, in an action pose
Just the gateway
Todaiji Temple
It is a UNESCO world heritage site and it was so cool to see. The Great Buddha Hall was the largest wooden building I have ever seen. And there, in the middle was Daibutsu, the sitting Buddha statue. Not the largest in the world, but it weighs 500 tonnes and is 15 meters high.
One of the large Buddha figures
And one temple guard!
Lots of people around and lots of kids. Seems there is always a huge number of schools out of field trips. The kids are running around and snapping selfies.
If you are not in a photo you don't exist!
A selfie is a must! So I do the same.
Ego #1
"When in Rome" and all that crap. And photobombing is also trending in Japan!
Dude! You got food in that shiny thing??
Darn hard to get a snap of the potential emptiness one could feel early in the morning. Being there just before the sun sets is setting the scene for many actors. But somehow I got one snap that showed potential.
It is a lie - thousands of tourists just outside of the snap.
We continued to a nearby shrine and enjoyed a more silent, calm location. You can sometimes feel the serenity oozing from the walls. This was one such place. Then we strolled back to Seikan-So, our Ryokan. We check in at Seikan-So and dinner.
The public bath is just to the left
And as a group went out for a first group dinner.
Found a place near the Ryokan and the food was good. It showed the upcoming trend - always pretty food that always was tasty. Never got disappointed about food on this trip.
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