Top of mount Wakakusa in touristic Nara (Kyoto 2014, #3)

Kyoto train station

This will be a relatively short blog about our next (near) Kyoto experience. Although it was not on our must-visit list, we went to Nara. After a 40-minute train trip (one way) we arrived in a gloomy place called: Nara.

Mount Wakakusa 若草山, Nara

Nara is one big touristic attraction, with a museum, temples with one huge Buddha statue, a Japanese garden, a 500 meter high hill and hundreds of tame deer. The main attraction seems to be feeding the deer with cookies and taking a picture with them. It’s a true chaos of tourists and children, and we found it quite horrible.

Deer at Nara

To get away from the deer feeding madness, we climbed the top of mount Wakakusa. At the top, we found out that people could reach it by car too… So it was very busy as well, but the view was okay. This was not our cup of tea, and we almost considered this a wasted day, or maybe not…

Restaurant Yak & Yeti

My wife selected a great place to eat that evening, a Nepalese restaurant called Yak & Yeti. It’s a tiny, simple looking restaurant, but the food, mostly curry and huge, fresh naan bread, is simply stunning. It makes you want to eat all of it, long after you are full. The Indian music made us happy and wiggle on our seats. The service is good and the staff speaks very good English. We actually loved this place so much, that we came back the next day, and we wished that it was located in Amsterdam too! I rate Yak & Yeti with a 9 out of 10. Oh, and don’t you worry about the price, it’s cheap!