We may have decided to stay put in Kyoto for 8 nights instead of moving on to Osaka, but there were a couple of places that were on our must-do list and so we headed out of town on the ever-efficient Japanese trains……

Nara

35Km South of Kyoto, Nara was the imperial capital of Japan prior to Kyoto and is regarded as the birthplace of Japanese civilisation. With 8 UNESCO World Heritage sites, the relaxed city gives Kyoto a run for its money in terms of ancient sites and Japanese culture, and it’s an unmissable trip out from Kyoto. Late leaving our hotel as were feeling lazy, and then spending far too long waiting for lunch in an understaffed pizza restaurant, we ended up only having a few afternoon hours to see the best of Nara – nowhere near enough time but sufficient for us to get a taste of this fabulous place.

Nara is famous for 2 things – the free-roaming deer and the magnificent temples. Steve had seen quite enough temples and his priority was the deer, so after our pizza we headed straight to Nara Park where over 1,400 Sika deer roam freely. These creatures are considered sacred and in ancient times killing one was punishable by death – a bit different to the last time we’d seen some in Ranthambhore National Park in India, where they are tiger fodder! The Nara deer are very tame and have even learned to bow to tourists in return for a special ‘deer crackers’ which can be purchased from nearby stalls. Fascinating to watch, especially the young deer learning to bow, the animals nearest the entrance (and deer cracker vendors) are the most pushy but as we made our way up through the park they thinned out and became a bit more polite. That was until a young deer, miffed that Steve was feeding an older animal, decided to have a nibble at the hem of his t-shirt which then had to be consigned to the bin! The deer aren’t confined to the park in any way, so they were found wandering all around the town….

Steve may have been templed-out but we did make our way through the park to the must-visit Kasuga-Taisha Shrine, built around a 1,000 year old cedar tree and famous for its lanterns, with over 2,000 stone lanterns in the grounds and 1,000 hanging brass lanterns inside, all of which are different. BEAUTIFUL!

Heading back to the station we were just in time to see the awe-inspiring Todai-ji Temple before closing time and it blew us away with its size and splendour. Built in 1203 it has the biggest wooden gates in Japan, was the world’s biggest wooden structure until recently and houses one of the world’s largest bronze Buddha. By far the most impressive temple we’d seen in Japan and it would’ve been criminal to miss it, templed-out or not.

Nara was most definitely worth the trip and we only wish we’d got there a lot earlier in the day. It’d be great for an overnight stay too if you could be bothered moving your bags.

Universal Studios Japan (Osaka)

Big kids at heart or growing old disgracefully? We sometime do things that people our age really shouldn’t! Anyway……

Early on in our planning we’d decided that a trip to USJ was on the cards, in preference to the 2 Disney parks in Tokyo, and we made the early morning 1 hour trip on the train from Kyoto to be there in time for 9am gates opening. Before leaving the hotel Debbie purchased tickets online (good value at £50 each) to avoid queuing, which turned out to be a wise move as there is no ticket office – Japan is SOOOO digitally enabled. It was clear on changing at Osaka to the Universal City train that we weren’t the only ones getting there early – half of Japan appeared to he heading in the same direction and on reaching the entrance at 08.30 the queues were already huge. And people were taking this very seriously – Mario hats, Harry Potter cloaks and some very odd outfits were obviously the order of the day and we felt rather conspicuous wearing ‘normal’ clothes. The security and entrance queues may have been long but Japanese efficiency won and we were in by 09.15 and heading for our first ride.

After queuing briefly for Jurassic Park – The Ride, and seeing people donning rain ponchos, we realised that this wasn’t the rollercoaster we were seeking but rather a water ride. Sod that, we weren’t getting wet this early in the day so instead headed for The Flying Dinosaur next door. Well that was starting the day with a bang – one of the world’s biggest/fastest/longest ‘flying’ rollercoasters, on which your seat is tilted through 90 degrees so that you are hanging facing the ground, offering 3 minutes of pure terror with almost vertical drops, corkscrews, descent into a hole. When we checked afterwards it was described as ‘extreme’ – yup, it certainly was! We spent ages watching others on the ride, marvelling at our bravery/stupidity at having done it!!

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Next we headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – amazing to walk through the shops in Hogsmeade, past the Hogwarts Express and up to a high and magical reconstruction of Hogwarts before joining the queue (now 1 hour) for the Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey ride. At some point the queue stopped moving and on checking the USJ app it appeared that this attraction had stopped operating. Many gave up but we stayed put, luckily as the ride opened again and we made our way through the interior of Hogwarts to the start. Apparently this is not a rollercoaster but a scenic dark ride using robocoaster technology which allows the seats to pivot while being held above the track by a robotic arm. Anyway, the 4D experience took us on an exhilarating flight around Hogwarts, through a quidditch match, an encounter with dementors with lots of spinning, drops, twists and turns – technically amazing and utterly brilliant, Debbie’s favourite of the day (but we did end up queuing for nearly 2 hours for the pleasure).

We had a timed entry pass into Super Nintendo World as you can’t get in without one – a pastel-coloured and ridiculous assault on the senses, and with the longest wait times in the park. There was no way that we were joining a 130 minute queue for Mine Cart Madness but conceded on 70 minutes for Mario Kart – Koopa’s Challenge, joining the single rider’s queue to speed things up a little. Again, very clever and enjoyable, this was a virtual reality experience coupled with a ride around a track in a go-kart.

Starving as we’d not eaten all day we grabbed a burger at Mel’s Drive In, not bad value at £10 each for a meal with fries and drink, before joining the 40 minute queue for Hollywood Dream – The Ride, another quite extreme rollercoaster. There was the even more daredevil ‘Backdrop’ option – the same ride but travelling backwards – no thanks! Now a first; a ‘safety check’, basically to ascertain whether we were too fat to fit on the ride and to confirm that the safety bars could close fully with us inside. We wondered whether they make the seats smaller in Japan as the average visitor is likely to be much more slender than those at Universal Studios Florida. Anyway, we passed (just) and got to take another thrilling ride, not as extreme as the Flying Dinosaur but still excellent.

A bit tamer was the Space Fantasy ride, a spinning indoor rollercoaster taking you through the stars. Far less terrifying than the rides we’d done so far but still impressive.

It was starting to get dark, so one last ride before home. Queues were still over 2 hours for Mine Cart Madness so we returned to Jurassic Park – The Ride and donned our raincoats for the inevitable water splashes. We we lucky to get front row seats, and after a lazy river ride through Jurassic Park and seeing some impressive dinosaur animatronic action along the way, we headed uphill before descending a steep drop and getting absolutely soaked. Great fun and a fabulous end to the day.

Knackered we made our way back to Kyoto by train, arriving at our hotel 13 hours after leaving that morning. It was great fun but us old folk are going to have to get into training to take our grandson to Universal Studios when it opens in the UK!