Osaka n kobe n nara

I dont really have too much to say about osaka if im honest, its just another big japanese city where you can do the same sort of stuff i did in tokyo. The hostel im staying at has been pretty social, there've been lots of beers in the common area and we did karaoke the first night i got here. Everyone went out on saturday but i ran off to do my own thing because theres this super cool record store / club called compufunk in osaka that ive been obesessed with for ages and they had an event on. I pulled up to the club just after 12 and to my horror it was completely dead, there were like 10 people in attendance which sucked because the trains stop working after 12 and i was stuck there till 5. Huge dagger but i guess you cant win them all ://. Other than that the first 3 days in osaka were filled with food markets, busy streets and lots n lots of okonomiyaki (the noodly egg fritters). Osaka and hiroshima are the capitals of okonomiyaki and i could totally taste the difference, wasnt much of a fan in tokyo but ive had it almost every day here! Ive been frequenting a place that puts pineapple in it which is phenomenal.

3 days in osaka was more than enough so i spent the last two days doing day trips to Kobe and Nara. I spent my day in kobe at Nunobiki which is one of the mountains that surrounds kobe. I took a gondola up to the top where there was a nice herb garden and shop. You can get the gondola back down too but the view was amazing on the mountain and theres a cool jungly hiking trail that you can take so i walked down instead. I ended up aborting the hiking trail halfway because the steps were ridiculously steep and the trees were covering the view. They had an icecream stand and a bunch of hammocks halfway down. I got a lavender soft serve and chilled on a hammock for ages until it was almost dark. I stayed in kobe for dinner and got a crab red curry ramen bowl from a place called crab noodle, it was so delicious i think it might be the best dinner ive had in japan!

Theres a shrine in Nara that is believed to have been discovered by a deer god and as a result, deers are treated like gods there and they all just fleely roam the streets getting pats and treats 24/7. I love the deers in nara, theyre so majestic and nice and not bothersome at all. I was expecting them to be like big menacing seagulls harassing everyone for food but they were just delightful 😊. You can buy crackers to feed them which i initially wasnt keen on coz u shouldnt feed the wildlife but it looked like so much fun so i ended up doing it ahaha. If a deer is hungry and sees you walk past with some crackers it will bow to you to let you know it would like one. Apparently back in the old days (9th century) the nobles of the clan that resided in nara would bow to the deer and through generations of interactions with humans the deer have now learned to bow back.
My favourite places to visit at the moment are japanese gardens, something about how they arrange the plants and streams is so satisfying to me, i just walk through and think "wow everything here is in just the right spot". The pictures attached are of the yoshikien garden, which was exceptional, its my favourite garden of the trip so far. There were a bunch of temples n shrines that i visited but im pretty over that kind of stuff so i didnt pay much attention, im a full on garden guy!! Kasuga taisha was also really nice, it was a thick, mossy forest area that i really liked because it made the deer seem even more majestic. They looked so in their element grazing on grass and leaves in the forest. After i had finished wandering around the lovely gardens and forest i walked up Mount Wakakusa (not a mountain just a big grassy hill), it was the perfect place to chill out for the evening and get a good view of the city.Baca selengkapnya