I have been somewhat obsessing over all the exciting trains we will get to ride on this trip. Today is one of the train days: riding the Kintetsu Sightseeing Express, which I found on instagram a few months ago and saved so I could get tickets. Today will be trains! And then deer! And who knows what else.

But first: because my body doesn’t know what time it is, I actually ate breakfast. Let me tell you about the glory that is shokupan (Japanese milk bread) – it is everywhere here and I love it. All it needs is being toasted and a smidge of butter. It is pillowy, fluffy perfection. Truly the bread of breads.

Ginkakuji is up first today in shrine city. Ginkakuji is one of my perennial favorites, with its expansive mossy grounds and pine trees and nice little lookout over the city. The groundskeepers are working on raking a raised stone garden in the entrance as we enter, using numerous rakes and strings to measure their work. We didn’t stay too long to watch them, but they were still working on it about 45 minutes later when we left.

I just assume that the rock raking people are the same ones that painstakingly pick up every small leaf from the mossy grounds, since they are nigh-flawless. Peaceful little streams tinkle between every manicured area and beneath all the pines. This is a solid 10/10 for me. Plus, we got here just as it opened, so there were no people.

After eating a ginkakuji temple cream puff (cherry blossom flavor, and see previous post about Japanese food tourism), we meandered through a residential neighborhood to the philosopher’s path, which runs south from near Ginkakuji to another temple. It’s said that two professors from universities on either end of the path would walk this route together, hence its name.

If the (good for nothing) cherry trees were blooming, this path would probably be a mob. It’s narrow and dotted with quaint coffee shops, stores, and a few shrines along the way. I’m sad the cherry blossoms are slow, but I think I’m more happy that this walkway is not being mobbed, because it’s nice to be able to listen to the bird song and not dodge people.

Because I can be Influenced by signs, we ended up wandering off the path to stop at Hoen-in, a buddhist shrine tucked back a few blocks at the foot of the mountain. We passed a few people leaving, but there is almost nobody here.

Towards the south end of the philosopher’s path, there are a few street performers playing soft music. This is probably where most people enter, since there are actually other human beings in this area.

Ahead of our next destination, we went to Kyoto station for a bit. It’s absolutely gargantuan and you can ride the escalator up 12 floors to the rooftop garden. There are shops and restaurants along the way up, and the top is lovely and sunny today with a nice view of the city.

But we digressed. it’s time for one of the moments I have been waiting for: riding the Kintetsu Sightseeing Express to Nara!

But first, we have to find it, as Kyoto station is a wild zoo, and is very large. I ended up accidentally finding the place Grant & I lost our luggage in 2016 while trying to find this train. I followed a confusing sign for the express and we ended up in the underground back portion of the station. Somehow. The benefit to being back here is that I found some secret shinkansen ticket machines to use later. I had to ask for directions. Turns out we just went the REALLY long way around and could have just gone up and over the concourse, but whatever. We did it.

The sightseeing express is a very cute little maroon train with fancy seats that face the window or your partner. If you’re a group of four, you can get a small seating area to yourself. We are but two and I booked us seats that face the windows. You can even get a cute little commemorative ticket if you want (I wanted, and so I got the ticket).

Nara is home to deer, a giant buddha, and shrines. It’s mostly known for its very bold deer that wander everywhere in the park. If you see deer in Japan on the internet, chances are they are these Nara deer (though it’s not the only place to see them). In 2009, I saw a deer headbutt a child. Last time I was here, they nibbled my shirt. This time, it’s afternoon and they’re sunbathing and less hungry, since the hordes have already moved through.

Todaiji is housed in an absolutely gargantuan wooden building in Nara park, covering its big buddha. The temple complex used to be much larger with some side buildings, but those have since been lost to fire. The buddha and bodhisattvas inside are positively enormous. Even though there are a lot of people, the inside here is not too bad.

There are also like two cherry trees doing their thing here. These trees are very popular.

After the big buddha (I did not get big buddha food), we moseyed over to Kasuga shrine, on the south side of the park. To get there, you walk past a HUGE hill you can walk up if your idea of fun is walking up a giant, sun-baked hill. This is not my idea of fun.

At the base of the hill, there are lots of little deer. These deer will actually bow to you for crackers. Bless their hearts. I fed them many crackers.

Kasuga shrine is famous for all of its lanterns, which it lights up twice a year in a festival. There are thousands and thousands of them, the stone ones covered with moss. The ones outside the temple have the little deer peeking through them. I love them.

It was a longer-than-I-thought trek back to the station (if you are my real life friend, you have been subjected to this, and nobody is surprised) and we were pretty tired on our feet by the time we finally got back to the station. Good thing we’re taking a train that requires a transfer and is therefore less full of tourists!