RTW Trip Day #11: Nara Park, Train to Osaka & Incredible Sushi

andrewsco3
Oct 11
4 min read

Updated: Oct 14

9 October 2025

Steps: 17,154

Nara

We checked out of our hotel and caught the train to Nara, which took around an hour. We had considered skipping Nara and spending a little longer in Kyoto and going straight to Osaka, but the girls really wanted to see the bowing deer, so we decided to go - we were glad we did!

As we had our luggage with us, first order of business was to find the lockers so we could store our bags. Thankfully there were plenty available and it was easy enough to figure out.

Nara Visitor Centre

Our first stop was the Nara Visitor Centre, as I had read online that they offered free calligraphy and origami activities for kids. It was amazing!

The outside of the building - the centre is up the steps to the right

A lovely lady came over and explained how the Japanese writing system works. It was a bit hard to understand, but we learned that the Japanese language has different types of characters, including ones used for words borrowed from English called kanji characters. There are over 50,000 kanji characters, but around 2,400 are commonly used.

The lady then demonstrated how to make the various brush strokes, and we then practiced before creating a final version of our names to take home as a souvenir.

We even received free chopsticks for following them on social media!

The same lady also suggested the best things to do in Nara Park based on the time we had, as we were heading to Osaka later that day.

Nara Park

We then went to feed the “bowing deer”, as the kids were so excited to try it, and it took us all of about 20 seconds to come across the deer.

Buy cookies for 200 yen to feed the deer

They ate the special crackers we bought, and they ‘kind of’ bowed before we gave them the food – we saw some deer later in the day doing some proper bows - they tended to be the older deer, I guess they've had longer to figure out how to be polite!

After Jess had finished giving her crackers to a deer, it charged her and headbutted her. She was fine, but was a little shaken up, and we had to be her personal bodyguard for the rest of the day.

Yoshikien Garden

We made a quick stop at the Yoshikien Japanese Garden on the way to the Buddha hall, as it was free to enter. There was a tea room, a pond and a moss garden, and we had a quick walk around, it took about 20 minutes.

Todai-ji Buddha Hall

We made our way to the Tōdai-ji Buddha Hall and saw just how huge the hall is. We wanted to go in, but we followed a huge school group and the queue to get in was massive. As we were on a bit of a tight schedule, we ended up just looking at the building from the gate, before heading towards the station, passing by the impressive Nandaimon Gate.

Ukimido Pavilion (Floating Pavilion)

Ukimi-dō floating pavilion, was our favourite part of Nara Park as there were a lot less people (and deer) so it was quiet and peaceful. From the pagoda you could even turtles swimming in the water.

From there, we walked back to the station, via a few shopping streets, and even saw where they do the famous 'mochi pounding' but unfortunately they weren't doing a performance as we went by.

We picked up our bags from storage, then caught the train to Osaka!

The Osaka Station Hotel, Autograph Collection

It took us a little while to find our hotel from the train station as we were looking for a sign on the ground floor. We finally figured out that the recording was on the 27th floor of the JP Tower!

I have to say – wow! we’ve stayed at a few Autograph Collection hotels before, so we expected it to be nice, but this must be one of the nicest we’ve ever stayed at. The views were absolutely incredible, and the amenities in the room were some of the best we've ever experienced.

We had another funny toilet experience, as Jess walked into the bathroom and let out a shriek as the toilet seat opened automatically!

There were some free drinks in the fridge too, including beer, sake, and orange juice. Perfect!

Our Final Dinner in Japan

What a way to end our time in Japan!

The basement level of the JP Tower was a lovely food court, and it had plenty of options, but this sushi place caught our eye as it was full and only had a smallish queue – usually a sign of good food.

It was by far the best sushi we ate in Japan. The tuna maki rolls were incredible, and we even splashed out on a few wagyu beef rolls which just melted in our mouths!