On my third day in Japan, I didn’t have to wake up early as I will only roam around Nara Park and see the different temples together with my tita. And as you might know from my previous blog post, my tita lives in Nara so going to Nara Park will only take about 10-15 minutes from their house. 

My head was really hurting from the night before maybe because of exhaustion from my Osaka exploration or partly because my body’s still adjusting to the insane low temperature but I really got a good night’s sleep. I slept at around 7-ish and woke up around 8am already so yeyyyy for catching up on sleep. Haha! I was really sleep deprived prior to this trip because of preparations and work and gym and juggling my social life all at the same time. Believe me when I say it shows on your skin when you’re sleep deprived. I am starting to hate my skin and I felt ugly. Ugh. 

Tito Takeshi brought us to Nara Park at around 1pm and I saw some tourists (or maybe not tourists?) wearing kimono and jokingly told my tita I also wanted to wear one. We were just talking about wearing kimono in Kyoto the other day because the vibes in Kyoto is like old Japan but we figured  there’s no one to take my photo because I’ll just explore Kyoto on my own on my last day. So, what’s a day with my tita around Nara without wearing a kimono, right? Haha! Tito Takeshi made a u turn and drove us to the kimono rental. 

I gotta say, exploring Nara with my tita was such a lot of fun! I didn’t have any problems communicating with people because she’s there to talk to them for me. Haha! Really gotta learn Japanese now. The rental costs 4800 yen which covers the kimono and the hair arrangement. Yup, you can choose to just rent a kimono or have your hair arranged too for that added glam. And since I’m already wearing a kimono, why not make my hair suitable for the attire too?! Kimono rental is cheaper in Nara compared to Kyoto. We went inside the shop and my tita did the talking. After some time, we were escorted to another shop with all the kimonos and yukatas on display. I just learned that kimono is worn during winter and yukata during summer. 

Look at all these colors! 

Choosing the right kimono for me hehe 

Details 

There are just so many choices but trust me, the best kimono are those that pops in color. Safe colors don’t give justice so it’s really better to wear colorful ones. 

Wearing a kimono was also not easy. There are a LOT of wraps happening. My tita even jokingly told me that I am a lumpiang shanghai now because of all the garments wrapped around me. Well, it’s worn during winter so that’s probably the reason why there are so many layers. I don’t know how a person can wear a kimono alone without any help from someone. Wearing a kimono is an art in itself. I lost count on the layers. Each layer also gets tighter so I can barely breathe normally after the final layer. They also provide small bags to go with your kimono. 

People are literally looking at me while wearing the kimono. I could pass as Japanese if I can just speak the local language. Haha! People were shocked when I speak in English. 

So yep, on to the business for the day. My tita is such a stage tita in a sense that she’s the one directing my poses and always game in taking my photos. She’s super bagets. 

Nara park is famous for its deers because the deers are just scattered in the area. They can go anywhere they want to be. There’s even an underpass that doesn’t have stairs so the deers and cross the street without any hassle. Heck, they can even sit at the middle of the road and cars will have to wait until they get off the road. In Nara Park, deers are king. How lucky is my tita to see this kind of scene almost everyday? She works near Nara Park so she’s already used to deers. 

Do I fit in the neighborhood? 

There’s probably hundreds or thousands of them and my tita told me someone counts them at the end of the day to know if a deer is missing. The best part? You can feed them and you can touch them! There are vendors who sell deer snacks for 200 yen. Just be careful though because once you get a hold of the snack, some deers will follow you and some can get quite aggressive. If you don’t have anymore snacks, you just have to raise your both hands to signal them you don’t have snacks anymore. 

My tita escorted me to see Todai-ji temple. I’m not following my itinerary because I know my tita knows this place far better than I do so I just go wherever she takes me. Hehe. 

Todai-ji temple is freaking huge!!! And there’s a buddha inside which got me so curious. I didn’t know that Buddhism is one of the major religions in Japan. I was surprised to see a huge buddha inside the temple. It's surprising because unlike the Southeast Asian countries I've been to that has pagodas almost everywhere, Japan seems to have shrines and no traces of pagoda.

The huge Todai-Ji Temple

I got to experience writing down my wishes on a piece of wood and hang it. There’s also this thing where you get a stick with number in it and you’ll now if you have good or bad luck. After reading the paper and what it states as your fortune, you have to tie it outside the temple. Girl, I only see these on animes so it was fun experiencing it! I was able to buy some charms for people too which is quite fun because again, I only see these charms on anime. Lol. 

After Todai-ji temple, we already went back to the rental shop and changed to my regular clothes then we ate at Mcdonalds. At the time, they have this delicious croquet burgers with gooey cheese inside so that’s what I ordered. Yum! 

After eating at Mcdonald’s, my tita went with me to the mall to shop for some winter clothes and shoes in preparation for my work in AU. I was also able to shop for Christmas gifts for my loved ones here in Manila. Hehe. Most of the shops are already on sale for winter clothes so yey. Local Japanese brands are just sooo cool. I mean the clothes are just stylish. I hope I can shop for summer clothes too in Japan in the future. 

After shopping, went back to my tita’s place and ate dinner. We are all exhausted. Haha! 

My take away for this day is that Japan is soo freaking beautiful especially with that autum colors (but we all know that already) and that I want to see more of it. I hope they can preserve Nara Park and its deers but its Japan so I have nothing to worry about. Just by writing this made me miss Japan and wish I can go back in time and experience it again.