After three really enjoyable days in Kyoto, we said goodbye to the city and to Christophe & Barbs. Our journey to Osaka was fortunately relatively short, a mere 25 minutes south and we were back in a ‘big city’.

After dropping our bags off at the Ōsaka hotel, we were quickly back on the train and on our way to Nara.

Originally known as Yamato, Nara was Japan’s first capital and the seat of the Emperor. Rich in ideas and technology from Europe, China and Korea via the Silk Road, Nara is considered to be a living museum with 1,300 years of art and architecture to offer.

Nara is awash with so many temples, shrines and gardens, as well as hundreds if not thousands of deer, which are to be found wandering the streets, grassland and even the monuments.

When we first came across our first deer, we stopped in our tracks and tenderly fed the ones that looked most hungry. However within 15mins it was evident that they were everywhere and the braver ones weren’t scared of pushing up against you seeking to be fed.

To say they were everywhere wouldn’t be an understatement, they almost took over certain walkways and were completely at ease with visitors and any noise from people or passing cars.

Our first stop was a visit to Kofuku-ji temple famous for its 5 storey pagoda. Sadly this was hidden behind scaffolding due to ongoing repairs, so we had to settle for the temples national treasure museum and its grounds.

From there we made our way through Nara Park with its free-roaming deer, which are considered sacred in the Shinto religion.

Our next point of interest was the Kasuganocho Taisha Shrine, adorned with hundreds of stone and bronze lanterns.

This ancient Shinto shrine was surrounded by nature alongside the rows of lanterns, which are lit during special festivals.

This ancient temple complex, is a significant landmark in Japanese history and its culture.

After the bronze and stone lanterns we came across gold leaf versions too, making the shrine glow in the sunshine.

We then moved on to Todai-ji temple, the site of the Great Buddha (Daibitsu) one of the largest bronze statues in the world.

The temple complex and grounds are kept immaculate by a massive team of gardeners and volunteers who we watched sweep up leaves from around the lanterns.

At last we arrived at Todai-hi temple and were greeted by thousands of kids on school trips.

Given the size of the temple and its Buddha we decided to buy tickets to see the whole temple complex and weren’t disappointed, seeing the intricate wooden architecture of the Great Buddha Hall, the largest wooden building in the world.

This Buddhist temple complex was once one of the powerful Seven great temples located in the city. The construction was an attempt to imitate Chinese temples from the much-admired Tang dynasty.

The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism. The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Sites as one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in Nara.

After a busy morning, we decided to stop for a late lunch and treated ourselves to a coffee and cheesecake in the temples museum.

We then got back to our tourist duties and a visit to Isuien Gardens, with its borrowed scenery which incorporates the nearby hillsides along its meticulously landscaped trees and tea houses. Definitely worth a visit on any trip to Nara.

Before leaving the park, we stopped in at Yoshiki-en Garden, with its beautiful traditional Japanese gardens. It has a mini botanical feel and we had a stroll around the moss garden, pond garden along with the tea house garden, all free of charge.

Before leaving Nara we took a detour to the district of Naramachi, famous for traditional Edo-period merchant houses. We wandered around the historic community where Michelle was able to acquire an antique kimono.

The area was filled with preserved townhouses, quaint shops, cafes and modest museums around each corner.

It was a real pleasure to discover these quaint properties that really give you a feel of historic Nara.

After a pleasurable day in Nara, we returned to Osaka and made our way to Abeno Harukas 300 Observatory, a 60 storey/300m tower in the centre of the city that offered spectacular views across Osaka.

Whilst this must be the sixth or seventh 300m+ plus tower we’ve gone up in Asia, Andy still suffers a little with his vertigo and prefers to sit away from the edge.

The tower was currently being themed for Halloween which is a big event in the Japanese calendar (who knew?) judging by how early they start to acknowledge & celebrate the event.

Keeping with big events, the tower celebrated its 10th anniversary quite recently and what better way to recognise this momentous occasion than by getting a Japanese boyband to come over and have their photos taken at the top.

Well that’s about it for another day, we managed to see lots of nature at Nara along with the modern architecture city of Osaka via the Abeno Harukas 300 Observatory.

After all that we were keen to get back to our hotel and prepare ourselves for the next port of call tomorrow, Kobe, thankfully just a 30min train journey away.