Daegu!: My Vacation in Osaka

So I finally had my first vacation time! I decided that I should use the extra time (2 days plus a weekend) to head abroad. After some helpful advice from other expats, I decided to head over to Osaka, Japan. I flew out of Incheon Airport on Peach airlines. They were quite nice, particularly when it came to my wallet. I chose not to buy a large seat or to check any bags, so that kept my fare low. They were no frills, but I spent longer getting to the airport than I did on the plane, so it was no big deal. Once I got off the plane, I was a short train ride away from Sin-imamiya Station, where I could transfer to Dobutsuen-mae, where I had instructions on how to get to my hostel. Unfortunately, Shin-imamiya and Dobutsuen-mae were not actually connected. I just kinda wandered, following maps on the outside of the station until I found Dobutsuen-mae. From there, my hostel was right around the corner.

Hotel Mikado was pretty nice, especially since I was only paying $20 a night for a single bedroom. The rooms were quite simple, but they had a bed, a mini-fridge, and a TV. For a place you only go to sleep, it wasn't half bad. The place was very clean. The bathrooms were shared, but it wasn't inconvenient at all. The showers were down on the first floor. You got a bathrobe from the hotel, so you didn't have to worry about changing in the showers. They also had a very nice common lounge with a kitchen and computers. The nicest part is that the hotel also had a sauna with a hot pool. It was quite nice and a good way to relax after a long day of walking everywhere. Oh, I almost forgot, the rooms had air conditioning, so they were quite comfortable.

One of the biggest suggestions I heard was to head over to Nara. Nara was a short trip away on the Kintetsu railroad. I just made my way up to Shin-Osaka Station, and from there grabbed the train to Nara.

Once I was in Nara, it was very easy to get around. I found a tourist information booth on the second floor of the train station, and there was an English-speaking attendant who gave me a map and showed me how to get to all kinds of sites. I decided to check out The Japanese Gardens, the Todaiji Temple, and the 3 and 5-story Pagodas.

One of the first things you notice about Nara is that there are deer EVERYWHERE.

You could buy stacks of crackers for 150 Yen (about $1.50) to feed them. The brochure said that the deer were so polite that they would bow when asking for crackers.

Hahahaha, yeah they don't really bow. In fact, they start gnawing on your arm. One little bastard ate the map out of my back pocket. Damn deer.

I decided to first head on down to the gardens. Down a very quiet alleyway I found Yoshikien Garden and Isuien Garden.

Yoshikien Garden was free to foreigners.The garden had a few separate areas. The first was the pond at the center of the garden.

This little pagoda on top of a rocky hill was a great place to rest and survey the rest of the garden.

This is the tea house. Unfortunately, visitors weren't allowed in.

This is the Tea House from the other side, overlooking the moss garden. This was the back side of the garden.

It was pretty cool to see a Japanese Maple, especially since we used to have one in our backyard in New York.

These flowers had the craziest patterns.

This column had a relief carving of the Nara deer on it. The deer are believed to be messengers of the gods, hence they are given free reign in the city.

One last view of Yoshikien Garden from the pagoda.

After Yoshikien, I headed just around the corner to Isuien Garden. This one was about 600 Yen ($6.00) admission. Totally worth it.

Totally worth it.

Isuien Garden had fantastic views with the Todaiji Temple in the background.

Over on this pathway I met some Italian tourists. Luckily, I remembered enough from high school to tell them I was an American who lived in South Korea, working as a teacher, who was on his vacation in Japan. They were pretty impressed and I told them I had studied for about 5 years, 5 years ago. After all that, I flubbed up with a simple question when I answered 네 (yes) instead of si (also yes). Oops.

Another tea house. There were a lot of these.

Wouldn't be Japan without seeing some carp. I think this was a carp. Let's just go ahead and call it a carp.

After the clouds starting growing dark, I decided to head over to the main temple before the storm broke. On the way I found a small visitor center with tea, a terrace that overlooked Todaiji, and an earthquake simulator machine.

As you can see, the skies were definitely not friendly anymore.

One of the cool things at Todaiji was the dragon-head flagpoles.

This is the Nandaimon Gate that leads to Todaiji.

Looks like the White Lotus Society really is everywhere.

These giant sculptures were behind screens, but they are the guardians of the Nandaimon Gate.

When I got to the main entrance of Todaiji, there was some kind of event going on with the monks and the press. It was kind of cool watching a bunch of monks get ready for a photo op.

Once you enter Todaiji, you can see Daibutsuden, or Big Buddha Hall. Why is it called Big Buddha Hall? Keep reading!

This was a drinking fountain outside of Daibutsuden.

According to legend, if you had an affliction, you could rub this statue in the same place and the rub that part of your body, and your ailment would be cured.

There was a place for visitors to light incense outside Daibutsuden.

This is the Big Buddha of Big Buddha Hall.

Some say that the hole in this column is the exact size of the Big Buddha's nostril. There were a lot of school trips there that day, so the line to try crawling through the hole was HUGE. Seeing the pint-size ankle biters having trouble getting through made me decide not to try it.