Day 6 in Japan

June 8, Thursday – We were told that we were unable to get a bath in the morning as it was too early. Normally the Japanese do not bath in the morning. Around 6.40am, the bathing side was available. Zi Qi and I faster rushed down to take our bath. The whole hot spring was empty. We had breakfast at around 7.45am. They have a culture of mixing the raw egg and eat with the rice, which we Malaysians find it unusual. At around 8pm, we departed.

Our next destination is “Sanzen-in”, a temple near our hotel. This temple has a very nice garden, it is cooling and quiet. The monk there explained to us the cultures of Japanese Buddhism. At 10.25am, we departed to Nara. The trip took more than 2 hours.

At around 1pm, we reached Nara. As we were approaching “Todaiji”, a temple in Nara, we saw many deer along the way. They were running in the wild, almost everywhere in the park. As we approached the temple, we saw even more of them. The crowd was feeding them with special biscuits (only for deer). Many stalls outside of the temple were selling deer soft toys. Before touring in the temple, we had our lunch outside, in one of the stalls. The food there is more expensive than in Kyoto. I ordered a dish with a mixture of fried pork, half-cooked egg and rice. It was delicious. The meal cost 900 Yen. The place was packed with school children and high school students. The primary school students are very cute with their yellow caps on. Everything in “Todaiji” is huge, from the gates, statues to the building. It is amazing! I wonder how they built this temple in the ancient times.

About 3pm, we departed to Igaryu Ninja Museum. It was drizzling as we reached. They demonstrated some of the Ninja skills and techniques. It was interesting. Then, we explored the museum on our own. Ninja is like a special squad. Normally they work as farmers to hide their true identities. They worked in the dark, and not as bodyguards. Ninjas have 6 disguise to hide their identity when they are on a mission. Those special techniques in the animation, “Naruto” are merely a fiction.

At around 5pm, we departed back to Hekinan. On our way there, we stopped by a 100 Yen shop in a shopping mall. The gaming center there is really nice. The toys and prizes are fabulous. There is a lot of machines in which you can put in some coins, normally about 100-200 Yen and draw out an item. I bought quite a number of stuff in the 100 Yen shop.

My host parents brought me to a new Western café for supper. They ordered a tiny pizza for me. The decorations of the restaurant is very nice, it is based on the Disneyland theme.