Constantly Changing Plans

There are plenty of cafés in Kyoto offering a breakfast set for a modest price. However, all available options are some combination of very thickly sliced toast, egg and maybe cheese. Drinks are coffee or tea and you can't have orange juice instead. But with a bit of lateral thinking, you can buy it as an extra from the non-breakfast menu and still keep the price below £4 per person The food when it comes is fresh and hot, except for the earl grey tea which has ice cubes in it.

After breakfast we decided to visit the Shinkyogoku Shopping Arcade as Jackie remembers it as a place of many purchases from our last visit. It quickly became clear that Ben's love of shopping was not nearly so well developed as his Nannie's, so a new plan was required. A quick Google suggested we visit the Nintendo Museum which was only 2 trains and about half an hour away, but didn't mention that tickets were sold out well into October - we only discovered that when we got there. So we caught another train to Nara, Japan's first permanent capital city, instead.

In the centre of Nara is a large green forest park, home to some of Japan's most important historic sites. We visited Todai-ji (Great Eastern Temple), built in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan. The temple today is a reconstruction, completed in 1692, after the reconstruction from the 12th century was destroyed by fire. The original Grand Hall burned down in 1180. Fire was a constant risk to these old wooden buildings, especially in times of conflict. The main temple hall is one of the world's largest wooden buildings and houses a 15 metre high bronze statue of Buddha. Seated with one hand extended outward in a stop or high-5 gesture, it is a very impressive site. The long pathway leading up to the main temple gate is packed with tourists, noisy schoolchildren and deer, and yes I said deer as in Bambi and Rudolph..

The Nara deer are wild animals and have inhabited the surrounding parkland since before the first temple was built. Once considered to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods, and now with National Monument status, they are a protected species. There are about 1,400 of them wandering around the park, the temple grounds and the surrounding streets. It's not unusual to see them hold up traffic while they march slowly across the road and there is no doubt who owns the place. Tourists can buy special biscuits to feed them, so you are likely to be nudged to check if you have any, and mobbed if you do. And don't let the view of the majestic temple buildings be the complete focus of your attention as you have to be very careful where you plant your feet. At least in Nara, the Japanese custom of removing your shoes before entering an indoor space makes complete sense.Read more