Nara is very different to what we expected. It is described as old Japan and it certainly has many world heritage temples.

But today the bus loads of tourists are more likely to be taking photos of the many deer who roam freely in Nara Park and buying shika senbei (deer crackers) from vendors for 150 yen to feed the deer. We didn’t buy any deer crackers but Anthony discovered that deer also eat paper and one took a bite out of our map!

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And there were still some cherry trees in flower but not the abundance there would have been just a matter of weeks ago!

We had the Man’yo botanical garden of Kasuga Shrine almost to ourselves as the wisteria for which it is famous was not yet in flower. Man’yo plants are plants that have been found in Japan since ancient times and were described in the Man’yo shu, an anthology of poetry composed between the fifth and eighth centuries. This garden showcases 270 of these plants. It wasn’t the best time to visit but it is quintessentially a Japanese garden where structure is key. The wisterias over the water would be particularly stunning in flower.

Our accommodation is at the JR super lohas hotel at Nara railway station. Our room is compact but surprisingly comfortable even if one side of the bed is pushed up against the wall! It’s tricky understanding the room configurations when you book online and we have had experiences when a double room turns out to mean a three quarter bed in an ultra small room. It’s nice to have a window which opens, black out shutters, buffet breakfast with Japanese and western offerings, a guest laundry where you can do a load of washing and drying for 200 yen, a Japanese bathhouse and a room where you can select your own pillows including one that seems to have beans in it.

We’ve enjoyed rediscovering Japanese supermarkets again and the array of the familiar and not so familiar foods.

Our souvenirs from Nara are a bottle of soy sauce, a jar of soy concentrate and some red bean tea bought at two different shops with very helpful shop assistants who let us try before we bought!