Japan, Day 1. Deer Park, Todaiji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine
I'm flying out of Kyiv, the weather is snowdrifts (see photo). There is snow in Osaka, but the ground is dry. It turns out that snow is rare in Japan.
The airport is very pretty, built in the form of a long glass hill. The guide advises to change money at the airport, here is the best rate. Exchangers require filling out a form, what to be afraid of is not clear.
Water and cigarettes - only in vending machines (see photo). There is also a bunch of other incomprehensible water, which I will gradually master. Today I got chilled green tea - what you need after a sleepless night on an airplane! The machines are friendly, except for the lack of inscriptions in English.
Earthquakes in Japan all the time. For example, when you take the subway, the train can stop between two stations, stand for several minutes, after which the driver announces "Sorry, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 4 on the Richter scale" and go on.
We ate a lot for lunch, but most of all I remember the fresh daikon - this is a Japanese radish. Served cut into long slices like McDonald's french fries, only white, juicy and crispy. It tastes like radish, but more tender.
Deer park (see photo). About a thousand cute animals roam the park, begging tourists for cookies. This skill has been so honed over generations that after the first bite, you're gently and obsessively pressed back to the cookie stand. Then on the second circle, the third and so on until you run away or the cookies run out. At this time of the year, deer are without antlers, so they lightly grab clothes with their teeth and pull in the right direction.
Todaiji Temple (see photo) is a huge Buddhist temple with a colossal Buddha statue in the center and four guards at the corners. At the beginning of the century, after one of the earthquakes, the head of the statue fell off. They quickly put it back, but the laughter must have been. . .
Kasuga Taisha Shrine (see photo) is a complex of low wooden buildings and paths between them. Decorated with thousands of copper and stone lanterns. Not impressed, although it is one of the main attractions of Japan.
Very often we meet detachments of Japanese schoolchildren (see photo). Such positive goldites run around, surround at every step, ask stupid questions "where are you from" and ask to be photographed. And mostly girls. One "about seventh grader" even said that I was a handsome man. Itself was also nothing : -)
In Japan, separate waste collection. 2.3 and 4 separate containers saw with my own eyes. But they say that in one of the prefectures, garbage is sorted into 12 types.
In the evening we went to a small shopping center in Osaka. All mannequins are clearly European, not oriental in appearance (see photo). The prices are cool, but this is not a typical supermarket, it will be more expensive further.
We tried real Japanese sushi! In the center of the restaurant there is a kitchen, along the perimeter of which a narrow conveyor moves, all filled with small plates with different types of sushi (see photo). We sit down at the table right next to the conveyor - and away we go! Appetite is warmed up by constantly moving "targets". Japanese sushi is light food. We ate our fill, having tried almost everything. We spent $25 per person.
Checked into the hotel. For a long time they mastered Japanese toilet technology (see photo).
