Japan - Day 2 Nara - Nara Machi and mochi

August 21, 2014

Without hubby, I just walked around by myself today.Just looking at old buildings.

Nara is known for it's heritage buildings and you just have to walk around the side streets to find them.

I think this was a bath house?

These streets are really narrow and the cars don't really slow down. There is no pavement, you just have to jump out of the way of the cars.

See what I mean? NARROW.

After walking around for a while, decided to get lunch. At the corner of Sanjodori street, diagonally opposite the station, there is a small store. At the front, there is a fridge with prepacked sushi. I just pointed, and it was all packed up, in a bag with a pair of chopsticks and a napkin. I got a nigiri sushi pack for 880 yen. The uni (sea urchin) was amazing.

On Sanjodori street there is a famous mochi store. Every few hours they do a demonstration on how they pound the sticky rice to make your mochi. Quite a skill as one guy pounds with a mallet and the other guy turns and wets the dough. This all happens at lightning speed.

And this is what you get for 1000 yen, 8 mochi. The green in the dough is not from green tea, but from a type of grass.

I had no idea what the filling was, turned out it was red bean.

More walking around. Mainly practicing my hiragana. I think the sign says "Yatsute - masuyo". No idea what it means

Corner store with mandatory vending machine. This one is for cigarettes. Japanese smoke a lot.

Sometimes the old and new don't mix too well

Lots of people walk or ride a bike. You don't need a helmet here to ride. Or those fancy riding clothes. We saw ladies in high heels riding a bike.

Caught up with hubby at the end of the day. Then off shopping in Aeon again.

Simmered vegetables (which included konnyaku), sashimi, more nigiri sushi and beer. Apparently beer is needed at the end of the day, especially after talking with work people all day.