Osaka (Day 2)

The great thing about staying in Osaka is that its easy to get to a number of close-by attractions and cities. Today we are heading up the mountain to Nara, a historic town run by sika deer (classified as a natrual treasure, according to wikipedia). We jump on the metro and within about an hour we are surrounded by many many "Patoots".

They seem to be quite at home in this town, even crossing the roads at the traffic lights. They are considered sacred and are defintely well fed. Some of them seemed to have cracked the code and know that if they bow, they'll probably be fed. They remind us a lot of Zakky: all about the food, not so much the pats.

We see a punch-up between two deer over a whole sweet potato that has been dropped. Jackpot. The larger of the two wins the fight, mainly through intimidation by getting up on his hind legs. While this is going on, a crafty crow comes in to steal the spoils. A real David Attenborough moment for us.

There are a number of shrines at the top of the park, well over 1000 years old. Its pretty cold today and a little misty, we wander around admiring the scenes before heading back down into town.

We warm outselves up at a cute little coffee place. The decor was cool, the food was OK. We head back into town aiming for Osaka Castle.

Osaka Castle sits in the middle of a large park on the outskirts of the main city, a similar setup to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, except the public are allowed in.

We walk to the top of the hill where the castle stands. We learn that like many old Japanese castles and shrines, Osaka Castle has been ravaged by fire and war in its long history. The building we are now looking at is a faithful recreation done in the 20th century.

We've clocked up some pretty big KMs on foot so far, averaging over 20,000kms a day. So we decide to take the night off to rest the legs, do some washing and watch the AFL (it's the opening round and we've been hanging out for the season to start).

This should stand us in good stead for tomorrow when we try and tackle as much of what Kyoto has to offer as possible.