Japan #4- (Last one!)- Nara, Himeji, Osaka

We have finally come to the end of my posts on our trip to Japan!  I know everyone is very excited for us to move on to new topics so I will be quickly summarizing the last few days there....

Joel and I took another day trip to Nara, Japan, famous for its deer population.  There are tons of small deer running around town that are pretty tame. They are used to people and will come right up to you.  You can feed then and pet them.  It was really amazing to see them wandering around with all the people.  Such a neat experience.

Making deer friends.

We explored a lot of the temples in Nara, it was a bit rainy but the shrines and walkways were so beautiful.  We really enjoyed it.

Joel at entrance to shrine.

Large Pagoda.

We also made a point to go see the largest buddha sculpture in Japan.  It was huge!  The pics do not do it justice.

Large buddha!

Joel with the deer.

Lots of deer!

You did have to be a little cautious of the deer, as we learned from this sign...

Be careful!

One of our other day trips on the train was to Himeji.  The town of Himeji is famous for its castle, which miraculously survived many bombing during World War II.  During the war it was covered in a black tarp so it couldn't be seen from above and the tactic worked.  When we went to visit the building was covered and being restored.  We were able to go into the structure and see the workers in action and the progress that was being made.  They actually took the whole building apart, cleaned the pieces and put it back together again.   It was very cool to see.  We took a guided tour of the grounds with an Australian couple who we ended up having lunch with after.  They were very nice, on an early honeymoon!

Going into the castle grounds.

Restoration.

Castle Grounds.

Shopping in Himeji.

Our last stop on our trip was Osaka.  We spent the day seeing the city and rode their famous ferris wheel that overlooked the river and the city.

In the ferris wheel.

Giant ferris wheel!

We walked the famous food street in Osaka, where every building/restaurant has huge signs that moved.  Joel tried a few street snacks (I wasn't interested) and then we went and had conveyer belt sushi which was delish!

Octopus!

Joel tried the octopus ball but did not enjoy them.  

Conveyer belt sushi.

And that's all folks!  A wonderful trip that was hard to summarize in a few short post but that will be great memories for us for years to come.

Sad to leave beautiful Japan.