Nara, Japan - Day 1

Hello and long time no see!! I know, I got lazy. As it's been a long time since I last wrote a post, I figured I should just stick to writing about Japan (and skipping, at least for now, China) since that's the freshest in my mind and probably the most interesting part of my trip.

Yuye and I left Beijing (and all its lovely food) to embark on the trip of our lives - Japan 2011, just one day after the great earthquake and tsunami hit its shores (we landed in Osaka Kansai International Airport in the afternoon of March 12, 2011, lucky it wasn't Tokyo). Even though both his family and mine were opposed to going, I wasn't mentally prepared to cancel my trip. I was expecting chaos and trauma and whatnots, BUT lo and behold the great nation of Japan, nothing of the sort was felt at all! Everyone was still partying hard at the local festivals and going on with their busy lives. The only difference was the constant earthquake reminders on telly and the many fundraising attempts on the streets. This is of course because we were hundreds of kilometres away from the affected areas and eventually we did have to cancel the trip to Tokyo, Sendai and Sapporo….sad sad face. :( Trains up north was severely affected which was a shame and plus the radiation and all…SIGH. Maybe in a few years we'll go back again...

Our first stop on this trip was Nara, an ancient capital in the Kansai region of Japan. Nara is famous for its deer, temples and untouched Japanese culture, a perfect place if you have a day or two to spare when you're wondering around its busy neighbours - Osaka and Kyoto. Nara is only around 20 minutes by train on the JR Nara Line or private Kintetsu Kyoto Line and roughly equally distance apart from these two cities. As soon as we arrived at Kansai Airport, we went straight to Nara so I don't miss the Omizu Tori festival (festival of water and fire) I had planned for that night. However, Yuye's hungry stomach made us miss the festival anyway. Lucky enough for me though, the festival lasted until the night of March 14 so we ventured back there again amongst the hundreds who also attended this sacred event. More about the festival in my next post.

Where we stayed

I only planned to stay for one night in Nara as I didn't know I was going to miss the festival on March 12 :(. The only place I could book at the time (I assume was because of the festival and everyone staying overnight because it went till fairly late) was Guesthouse Nara Komachi. By no means was this hostel bad, it was to my surprise actually very good. You can tell it was built just recently as the whole place smelt and looked of newness. I wasn't sure if the person who greeted us was the owner or not but he was so very nice and helpful. He carried our luggage up to the second floor (this place only has two floors I believe) and explained how to use all the electronics in the room. Every time we left the building, he would smile and bow. Ahh…the Japanese spirit… :)

We had a bunk bed with very comfy soft blankets and pillows and were spotlessly clean. This room really set the standard for me (for hostels anyway) during the trip. I wish I really didn't stay overnight in Kyoto because the hostel there was SHOCKING! More about that in a later post. The only thing that I didn't like too much was the bunk bed I suppose as I'm just not used to having to climb up and down stairs to get some sleep. They do have doubles, but those rooms were already taken.

Yuye had his first experience with a Japanese toilet here. :D I always find them awesome, even though I actually have one in my house :3. They are pretty much in every hotel you can find across Japan (apart from some older places) and can really make staying fun as you figure out what each button do. The shower was also spotlessly clean, cleaner than my own shower that's for sure.

Facilities were also great as you would expect from a good hostel (although I think it's more like a hotel than a hostel since you have your own bathroom and toilet). There was a free PC usage area, a common kitchen and DVD rentals available if you feel like staying in. Price was cheap too, 5800Yen per night booked from www.hostels.com, equivalent to around $71 at the time. The only unfortunate thing was the location, it was very close to the JR Nara Station (good for people who have the JR Pass like us) but was very far from the park where the festival was held. It literally took us about 30 minutes by foot and a lot of it was uphill. I was huffing and puffing by the end of the walk, and finally when we got there, we had to walk back with the leaving crowd. :( Despite this fact, we still had a good stay here.

Guesthouse Nara Komachi
Address: 41-2 Surugamachi, Nara, Japan
Book via Hostels.com

What we ate

Dinner on the first night was a bit rushed. I had every intention to attend the festival so I told Yuye to 'make it quick'. It didn't happen according to plan but as we managed to get a reasonably good meal out of it, I didn't complain too much. This traditional Japanese restaurant was near the hostel, called Echizen Sushi (越前すし). It didn't have an English menu, nor English speaking staff so beware if you're not very good at Japanese. At the time, we were both Japanese sushi newbies, didn't really know what to order so we got the chef's sushi omakase, which is basically whatever the chef felt like feeding us using that day's special ingredients. The locals had a good laugh out of our visit since the chef kept cracking jokes and speaking in broken Engrish.

All the sushi were very fresh and tasted fantastic, a great first meal I must say. Price wise was as expected - around 5000Yen for the two of us, not too expensive for food of its kind, but not cheap compared to the 300Yen ramen you could be having around the block. If you know Japanese, visit the following site for more information about the restaurant. http://r.tabelog.com/nara/A2901/A290101/29000325/

Sushi Ten, Melbourne CBD

Sushi Ten has always been one of my favourite Japanese restaurants and budget eateries around Melbourne. I remember back in the university days when I used to travel all the way from Parkville to Sushi Ten (located in Port Phillip Arcade near Flinders St) and line up outside just to satisfy my cravings for their mix don (combination of tuna and salmon with condiments on top of rice). Sushi Ten opens its doors at 12pm and usually there will be a line of people waiting outside. During peak hour (between 12pm and 2pm), free seats are scarce and many a time I've shared tables with strangers. It was already 3pm when I took the photos below so that's why the restaurant was reasonably empty. They only open for lunch (although lunch ends fairly late - around 4-4:30pm I believe) and are not open for dinner or on weekends.

Sushi Ten is a family owned business and the owners/chefs are always behind the kitchen counter working away. The one thing I always wondered about is how the waiters knew who ordered which dish. No name is taken, no table number is given and if you walk around the corner they can't even see where you sit. When the store is completely full (including sharing tables with others), the waiters are still able to walk straight up to me with my delicious mix don without even a slight glance in other patrons' directions. This is even the case when a different waiter brings out my meal to the person who actually took the order. I wonder what their secret is…maybe there's hidden cameras. O_O

The only menu available is what's written on the wall and you pay before you eat when you order your meal at the counter. Tea is free but requires self service - tea cups are on a table by the second door and if the tea is running out in the thermos, you can ask the waiter for a filled one. I guess that's how they cut costs to bring such good value food. :)

I always order the mix don when I'm here, although their other dishes are pretty good too. I find the mix don to be the best value and has just the right combination of ingredients to suit my tastes. It consists of raw tuna, salmon, marinated and cooked salmon, tobiko (flying fish roe, a large amount of it too), cucumber, avocado, nori (Japanese seaweed) and the usual ginger and wasabi. The generous amount of tuna and salmon are unevenly cut into thick and large pieces which I like because it's chewy and well, very satisfying when you can shove big pieces of it into your mouth. The rice is warm and if you eat slowly, the bottom of the fish will get slightly cooked. When I first tried this dish, I thought it was weird to have warm rice and slightly cooked fish because it's not what's done elsewhere. However, after so many meals here, I've really come to like my rice warm. The combination somehow gives it a homey feel. :)