Back to Kyoto and straight of to Nara!

So I was waked by the room service of my Ryokan and they told me that check-out is at 10 a.m.
I had set the alarm to 8.30 but I had turned it of, I have a slight memory of that. I had just felt so relaxed after the multiple baths and relaxing walks that I didn't want to rise apparently.

So I got up and packed my stuff in 2 minutes (I didn't have my luggage with me, only my necessities) and was ready to leave. I still had some minutes before the check-out so I washed my teeth.
I felt like a new man! I felt so refreshed and relaxed after the one night of bathing! This is truly amazing.

I walked down to the station to reserve tickets to the train toward Kyoto and since I had 20 minutes to spare before departure I went and bought some onigiri [rice balls] and coffee for the train ride as my breakfast.

I then went through the gate and was on my way with the train. I met an older American couple in the train and we chatted for a while and they had actually close friends from Finland and they were so kind as to complain our country on our education system.
The rest of the ride I slept while listening to music and watching the scenery passing by.

at Kofukuji

I arrived at around 1p.m. to Kyoto station and from there I went straight to my hostel to start preparing food and uploading my videos and blogs (unfortunately the videos did not upload after 2 attempts so they are a bit late). I made some simple wok and salad.

five storied pagoda

After eating I left to the Kyoto station to take the train towards Nara.
My JR pass ends today so I wanted to use it still to its full extent and Nara is pretty near to Kyoto (45 minutes by a rapid train) and has many UNESCO sights well worth the trip there!

I walked from the Nara station towards the Kasuga taisha shrine located near the mountains.
Nara appears to be, like Nagano, a town built around the road that leads to the shrine.

During my walk towards Kasuga shrine I went and looked at the famous Kofukuji temple which is also a UNESCO sight and is located alongside the long road towards the Kasuga shrine.
It had an amazing five storied pagoda and there were even some deer on the temple yard.

Nara is pretty famous for its temples but the deers are also famous in Nara, since they are free to walk in town and they have enclosures for them and even a park where they roam free.

It was a long, pleasurable walk to the shrine and the deers were cute as always.
The Kasuga shrine was surrounded by beautiful forest and there were a lot of stone lanterns along the path which probably acted as tombstones as well.

From there I then continued to the Todaiji temple. It was just too bad that that it was closed already but it was an amazing building from the outside as well. The big gate on the path toward the temple was also spectacular! It was HUGE!

I walked around a bit and then returned to the station to take the train back to the hostel.
After arriving I just went to the hostel and ate some leftovers from earlier.

Todaijis butsuden 

Thanks for reading!

Cheers
Robert

The big gate of Todaiji