I'm obsessed with deer, and when I last arrived in Nara, I was a little scared of them. When I visied back in 2008, I fed them all the time, and I seemed to have regained some confidence around them! They are so cute, and loved the biscuits I was feeding them. I had so much fun feeding them, and teaching Carl how that they will bow for food. They were just too cute!
I was really lucky with my timing, because the Sakura were perfect in Kansai that weekend. They seemed to be a lot more pink cherry blossoms in Nara, rather than the white ones which seem more common. It was pretty hard to get close, because of all the people, but I loved how they looked against the ponds, the tori gates and the lanterns!
After a nice late night ride home (and meeting another JET on the train!) and a good sleep, I said goodbye to Pete, and headed over to Nara. I was excited, because Carl had just moved up there to be with his sister Lydia. We had a nice lunch, and then wandered through the park, which was lovely because it was such a sunny day. I hadn't actually been into the park since August, when I first arrived, but it was just like it was when I left, and I'm sure it hadn't changed for hundreds of years! There were a lot of people out enjoying the sun and taking pictures of all the deer and the sakura. I would have loved to lived near there, I would have spent so much time there!
eggs in liquid ice to make them "misty/steamy". They kind of tasted a bit like bacon, which was a bit confusing with the egg falvour. I loved how random all the food was. I also got a cute carriage desert too! And the cocktails....were just...immense!
These themed cafes are very famous in Japan, and this was actually my first visit to one! The waiters and waitresses wore genie and dancing girl costumes, and everything was decorated to the nines! I loved how there were so many individual rooms, and little corridors and archways. It would be the perfect date night setting too, with little curtained off rooms! I had heard of a lot of these themed cafes in Tokyo and Osaka, and apparently, this is run by a chain company which does different cafes like this all over. I have heard of Alice in Wonderland ones, Vampire ones, Jail ones, and this one, the Arabian one! It is the only one we know of in Kobe, and it was so, so much fun!
We headed back to the city (Kobe) and to this amazing place that I really wanted to go to, called Arabian Rock. We went with Joel, Pete, our friends Tom and Anna from London, and then two new friends! It is always really nice to get together with new JETs, I just love chatting with them, and I was quite lucky they also wanted to go to this place. It's a themed bar, not with arabian food, but just with genies, and lamps, and cool fun food. We got our cute little room, with lanterns, fluffy pillows and all sorts of mood lighting. We got this awesome food, especially these sausages on a sword, which provided all sorts of funny photo oppourtunities and endless fun!
We stayed at Himeji for quite a while, I wandered off and took photos, people drank a lot and we chatted and played frisbee (badly!) and eventually, the sun set, and the lanterns got turned on, so I got some pretty nighttime sakura photos! They look a little orange, but they still are so pretty!
