Beer, deer and cultural highlights in the land of the rising sun

Last Wednesday evening, I was relaxing after a busy few days at work, and sitting down to watch, what for me is a rare spot of television. The programme I was about to watch was the first episode in a new series of Race Around the World. For those who might have been asleep, or otherwise missed the previous three series, five pairs of travellers participate in a race that will take them through several different countries, although there is a major catch. The pairs cannot travel by plane, must leave their smartphones and credit cards behind, and will not have access to the internet. Provided only with the cash equivalent of their airfare from their starting destination to the finishing line, they must find innovative ways to manage their budget and conduct their journey. If the pairs run out of money, they must earn some more to continue the journey, and they must also pass through a number of checkpoints along the way.

Series 4 (Season 4, for American readers), saw the pairs starting in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, on the first leg of an epic journey that will eventually take them to Indonesia. Their destination at the end of this first leg is the resort city of Nara, a short distance from Kyoto, in the south of the country. The mention of Nara, with its attractive deer park, and numerous historic temples, brought back pleasant memories for me, as this was the town that I visited, with a colleague, at the end of a business trip to Japan. That was in May 2013, so almost 11 years ago. But on the last day of what was quite an intense week-long visit, it was good to escape the hustle and bustle of Kyoto and take the short (50 minutes) train trip to Nara.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that the company I work for - part-time, now, is Japanese owned, and whilst there are obviously quite strong links between us and Japan, we operate with a fair degree of autonomy. I’m not 100% sure how the idea for the visit came about, but whatever the reason I jumped at the chance when it was offered. I travelled out with Marielle, our Operations Manager who is originally from France. With no direct flights between the UK and Kyoto, we had to change enroute. Several options were available, but we went with Dutch national carrier, KLM, which meant changing flights at Amsterdam Schiphol.

We were well looked after by our Japanese hosts, and we both came away having learned a lot about how the parent company operates. My sphere of interest was quality control and product testing, whilst my colleague’s specialty was automation of production and packing operations. I’m not quite sure what prompted us to visit Nara, but it probably came about after a senior colleague from the UK joined us, towards the end of the week. On the Saturday evening, the three of us went out for dinner, and as this was our first evening without our Japanese hosts, we decided to choose a European style restaurant, rather than a more locally themed one.

Our choice for the evening was the Beer Restaurant, located in the basement of a tower block, just outside Kyoto’s sprawling central station. Unashamedly styled on a Bavarian Beer Hall, the Beer Restaurant served draught Löwenbräu, bottled Export Bass plus a couple of bottled Belgian beers, but as we were in Japan, I decided to stay local and opted for a mug of Asahi Kuronama. Described as Japan’s favourite dark beer, this distinct, rich, and ultra smooth beer, is brewed from a blend of dark, crystal and Munich malts. It was very good, and slipped down a treat, so much so that I ended up over-indulging and knocked back three "medium" sized mugs of this excellent beer.

Fortunately, the following day was our final one in the country and was reserved for sight-seeing rather than business. Our recently arrived colleague Barry, wanted to do his own thing, but if we wanted somewhere close by to visit, he recommended the of Nara, which is home to a large number of impressive shrines, temples, and other World Heritage sites.  Having done our present and souvenir shopping earlier that day with our Japanese colleagues, a spot of culture, plus an escape from the metropolis, seemed a good idea, which is why Marielle and I found ourselves on Kyoto station the following morning, waiting for a train to Nara.

There are two main rail stations in the town, both called Nara, but are distinguished by the train lines they serve: JR (Japan Railways) and Kintetsu. Whilst this can be a little confusing for first-time visitors, the two stations are only a 15-minute walk from each other. We travelled with the JR service, primarily because we had been given a complimentary JR rail pass (basically a Japanese version of an Oyster Card), when we booked our return ticket from and back to Kansai Airport, when we first arrived in the country. This system where separate rail companies run their own separate trains on their own rail tracks, was what John Major envisaged, when he carried out his flawed privatisation of British Rail, between 1994-97, although things didn’t quite turn out the way he planned.

I digress, we had a pleasant journey through the Japanese countryside, and despite feeling rather hungover from the excess Asahi Dark I’d consumed the previous evening, I enjoyed the ride. My colleague was feeling fine, after restricting herself to wine in the Beer Restaurant, so I allowed her to take the lead when it came to navigating our way around the town. Our colleague Barry had told us that the majority of Nara’s temples, and other attractions were located either in, or close to the large deer park sited at the top of the hill, overlooking the town, so after picking up a map from the station, that is where we headed.

There was a definite “resort” feeling about Nara, as we stepped out of the station, and headed towards the deer park, the whole town felt less hurried, less busy and seemed virtually traffic free. The air too, felt cleaner and fresher – probably due to the town’s location amongst the hills and forests of southern Japan. The thumping in my head was starting to subside, and apart from a thirst, cured by drinking copious amounts of water, I was starting to feel much more human than I did when I crawled out of bed that morning.

Nara Park is a large park in central Nara, and is the location of many of the town's main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum. It is also home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered the messengers of the gods, the deer have become a symbol of the city.  "Deer crackers" are for sale around the park, and some deer have learned to bow to visitors to ask to be fed. Nara's deer are surprisingly tame, although they can be aggressive if they think people are about to feed them, so visitors should not try teasing them teasing them with food.

I won’t detail all the temples we saw because a) I can’t remember them all, b) they wouldn’t mean much to those who haven’t visited Nara, and c) there were too many of them, but the one that really stood out, and attracted the largest crowds, was Todaiji the "Great Eastern Temple.” This is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. Todaiji's main hall, the Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall), is one of the world's largest wooden building, and houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of the Buddha, which stands at 15 metres tall.

There were also many well laid out, and attractive gardens, and creating these serene and relaxing spaces, is something the Japanese excel at. Nara Park was teaming with visitors that day, including organised school parties, plus many other visitors, mainly Japanese, but there were some European faces amongst them. 

As we made our way towards one of the exits to the park, we chanced upon a traditional Japanese wedding taking place. This was at Kasuga-Taisha, a Shinto shrine, famous for its lanterns.
These have been donated by worshipers, and hundreds of bronze lanterns can be found hanging from the buildings, while numerous stone lanterns line its approaches.

Upon leaving the park, we made our way back to Nara JR station, for the train back to Kyoto. It had been a fascinating day out, and a fitting end of our visit to the Land of the Rising Sun.