I took another trip to Nara’s Hase Dera by Kintetsu rail over the recent holiday. Although I’ve been there several times I never get tired of going. One of the reasons I think is because it’s usually not very busy. On the other hand, one of the possibly not so good things about it is the many stairs you have to climb. It’s always worth it once you get to the top though, and can stand on the oversized balcony. The view is amazing any time of year. I’ve been in the spring, summer and fall. This year I might go in the winter.
Since I’m a bit of a creature of habit, I ate lunch at the same restaurant. I can never remember to get the name, but it’s a really nice place. It actually seems to be an old house with a beautiful Japanese garden. There’s a little pond, with gold fish and the tiniest of stone bridges. Eating soba and looking out at the shrubs and trees was very relaxing. Then thought occurred to me; that’s what it must have been like to live in the distant (and maybe not so distant) history of Japan.
I like to visit the temples and shrines here, and it’s good that I can get to them by Kintetsu or JR. It’s fun to be able to travel so freely from city to city, prefecture to prefecture on public transit. I wonder where I’ll let it take me next.
Leave a Reply