Hello Nara - Planning and Welcome

Day 4: Shinkansen Bullet train ride - HELLO NARA - Nara: An introduction - Horyuji Temple - Jikoin zen temple

 

N. A. R. A.

Nara was a place I had partially seen... albeit virtually. 5 beautiful blogs by 5 bloggers from Nara, blogging about the places in and around Nara had always inspired me to be there and actually see the this ancient town of Japan in person someday. So when the opportunity to visit Japan came knocking, there was no way I was letting it go. The day I came to know I will be visiting Japan, the first thing I did was mark Nara as one of the places I’d be visiting in Japan and the second was send out multiple mails to all my blogger friends informing them about the same!

3 Day Planning for Nara and Kyoto:

Planning for the 3 days in Nara and Kyoto was pretty simple, for me at least! It involved me doing nothing except shooting out hurried mails to 5 of my resident blogger friends – snowwhite, stardust, cosmos, sarah and Red Rose and notifying them of my proposed travel dates which were very near and fast approaching. That was it!

Everything else was taken care of, by all my Nara blogger friends! Thus, my 3 day travel itinerary for Nara and Kyoto was prepared, a home stay offered in Nara, a medium budget hotel was booked in Kyoto and complete guidance ensured within a matter of a few days of my notification. What helped matters further was that all of us were mutual friends to each other via blogging and that made working out things and correspondence a lot easier.

Finally, my 3 day itinerary arrived in my mailbox and it looked something like this – 

Day 4, Day 5: Ancient temples of Nara + homestay (courtesy cosmos) + A Tea ceremony + home cooked meals + loads of fun and laughter.

Day 6: Exploring the ancient temples of Kyoto + back to Tokyo.

The Welcome

As I stepped out of my Bullet train in Kyoto, two wide smiles were hard to overlook in the crowds. A big placard was peeping out through their hands.

Cosmos and Sarah receiving me with a welcome placard at the Kyoto station

from where we caught a one hr local train ride towards Nara

Coming face to face with bloggers from a different land... It simply felt special. Those few moments of welcoming were truly overwhelming to say the least. And all this was just the beginning of all the hospitality and warmth that was to follow. The unraveling of the beauty of the world that we all live in – Blogging - had only just begun!

Previous Posts from the Japan Trip -

1. Planning for Japan: Visa, Flight Bookings, Hotel Reservations, etc.

2. Sunrise pictures from the flight to Japan

3. Entire Day 1 of Japan (includes Review of Hotel Villa Fontaine Roppongi, Tokyo, Expedia Japan Office Meet: An Afternoon to Remember)

4. Entire Day 2 of Japan (includes SensoJi temple: Asakusa - Tokyo, Nakamise Dori Shopping Arcade in Tokyo, Sumida River Cruise, Tokyo, A Stroll in the Hibiya Gardens, Imperial Palace and East Gardens, The Tokyo Tower, Japan)

5. Entire Day 3 of Japan (includes Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo, ISKCON Temple, Funabori in Tokyo, Epson Aquarium, Shinagawa in Tokyo

6. Riding the Shinkansen: My ticket to Kyoto