11/30/2023 Train from Toba to Nara to Kyoto 

After a lunch stop in Nara, once the capital of Japan, we visited Nara's famous Todaiji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest wooden building in the world.

There is so much rice with almost every meal I never try to eat it. It's just not worth the calories.

From the moment we approached the Temple's Daibutsu-den Hall, it was a Kodak lover's dream - a major historic temple filled with valuable artifacts, a 52-foot Buddha, and a park filled with tame, free-roaming deer in search of shika senbei (special biscuits) from unsuspecting tourists.

Better get off your phone, Stan.  

  A deer is stalking you for a biscuit!

Bright yellow hats made it easy to keep tabs on students. 

Kokuuzo-bosatsu

Wooden model of Todaiji Temple.

Schoolkids loved exploring the wooden passageway.

 

Metal sculpture of Lotus Flowers and Butterflies

The Dormy Inn Premium Kyoto Ekimae was interesting and unique in many ways.  The free ice cream in the chest freezer near the 9th-floor elevator door was most notable. Guests were encouraged to help themselves.  

Most of us voted the bathroom also provided the best shower overall.

Warm, toasty pajamas, which Paula and I were hoping to purchase, hung in the closet, with quite a few guests taking the liberty of wearing them down to breakfast (which I thought was a great idea).

And, a 24-hour Lawson's store with connecting access to the Dormy Inn had the most reasonably-priced red wine and junk food during the entire trip (and that's saying something since their competition included 7-Eleven stores.)

Paula and I posed in the pajama tops. 

I was also wearing the pants as well.

After checking into our hotel, we had dinner at the Kyoto Handicraft Center while viewing a traditional dance demonstration by a maiko (apprentice geisha). Maiko begin their training between the ages of 15 and 20. They wear traditional kimonos and learn to dance, sing, or play an instrument.