Day 15 (Aug 13) - Nara and Uji

I've been to Nara twice, with both times seeing just Todaiji temple. This time around, we went to visit Kasuga Taisha -- a highly popular shrine dedicated to the guardian of Nara. We started our day late, but managed to get to Nara Station by around 11 AM if I remember correctly. The bus heading to Kasuga Taisha was quite packed. We were sitting at the back of the bus which made me worried about being able to get by people to exit the bus when we reached our stop. Fortunately, it seemed like a lot of people had the same idea as us since a vast majority left at the same time we did. We walked about 10 minutes through, what I assumed, was Nara park to reach the shrine.

The shrine was busy, but the main area was free to explore. We didn't want to pay to enter the shrine, so we walked back to Nara station to head to our next location. 

Uji is on the same line as Nara, meaning it was relatively easy to get to. As we got to the Uji station, we stopped by the tourism centre to pick up a map of the location. Uji is known for their green tea and I wanted to purchase some for my relatives. According to websites, the place to purchase tea is at Omotesando, which was near Byodoin temple. Since it was past noon, we stopped by a small soba restaurant near Byodoin temple for lunch. 

The portion of soba, I felt, was quite generous and the dipping sauce/soup broth was just right. After lunch, we headed to Byodoin temple first to look around. There was a little museum on the grounds of the temple which we visited. In here, we learned more about the temple and the various Buddha artifacts that dwell inside. After about an hour, we walked about 10 minutes to reach Omotesando. There was a wide variety of tea shops to pick from. We went to Ito-Kyuemon, a store that was recommended by a website. There were a wide variety of tourists within the shop, and they had a wide variety of different green teas to pick from. After purchasing tea, we headed back to the station to head back to Kyoto.

Once in Kyoto, we stopped by our hotel to drop off our purchases before heading back out for dinner. I was craving sushi from a department store, so we ended up heading down Shijo street to visit Daimaru. For those that do not know, most department stores have an extensive food venue in their basement level. In here, there'll be stalls and stalls of different foods: fried, sushi, bento boxes, vegetables, meats, deserts, etc. I never had a bad experience yet going to a department store's basement! We found some sushi and brought it back to our hotel. Our last full day in Kyoto before we move to Okayama tomorrow!