Managed to drag myself up and out by 6:30 for a run around Osaka castle, bit misty and drizzly but lovely to get the legs moving, especially before the streets get too busy and I can cross roads London-style without feeling too guilty (the locals are very strict about waiting for the green man to light up).

Curry for breakfast again, we’ve promised each other that tomorrow we’ll use the salad bar, so we get at least a few nutrients that might possibly be missing from meat and rice!

Last night we had a breakthrough with how to navigate trains and tubes here, so instead of a convoluted tube journey we walked for 10 minutes and got the direct train to Nara, felt like a major win. Disconcertingly the train goes up and over a (small) mountain, feels so very wrong to be on a train that goes uphill.

I wanted to see the temple housing a 14 meter bronze Buddha, Trix was more interested in the deer. I had a vague notion that they were protected and you could buy biscuits to give them, I had no idea there would be 13,000 of the cute creatures, and that they had the process of getting food from tourists absolutely nailed.

They’d gather around the food vendors waiting for someone to buy some, and then nibble anything they could get their little mouths around, hoping for something edible. Trix had her bottom bitten and one of the soft toys hanging off her bag got a thorough chewing before I wrestled it away. For such small animals (the size of a large dog, mostly) they can be surprisingly intimidating, so we stashed the food and rushed off to the temple.

Tōdai-ji was first opened in the year 752 (!), and apparently is the world’s largest wooden structure, though that didn’t really matter, what we noticed was how calm we both felt inside, looking up at the massive statue inside, I could have stayed there for hours.

Wandering through the park afterwards Trix figured out that the best deer strategy was to find one that looked a bit lonely, bow to it, and then when it bowed in return, reward it with a biscuit. Quite incredible how well they know the procedure, made us both very happy.

After all this feeding we were starting to feel undernourished, so nipped into a local cafe slightly away from the tourist places. Calm and gentle, perfect. Hamburger and rice (and beer) for me, tea and nuts for Trix, then back to the station with 3.5 miles in our legs.

Back to the hotel to chill, or… add another hour to the train journey and go to Kobe for an early supper?

I mean, Kobe, home of Wagyu beef, could we really turn down the opportunity? Course not.

It was a bit early by the time we got there, so had a pleasant wander around the port area and stuck our heads into the Maritime museum for a bit (not very exciting, but nice to get out of the drizzle).

Kobe did not disappoint, the food was amazing (the restaurant wasn’t as good as Jumbos in Tokyo, but half the price, so …), we didn’t overcook it and could have carried on eating for ages.

Now we really did need to get back to the hotel, thankfully the train line passes mercifully close by and (with a pit stop at the local Lawsons for beer and snacks) within 90 minutes we’re back chilling on our sofa and planning tomorrow.

Oh, as we got off the train Trix noticed the grab handles are little deer, a very Japanese detail.