A double location post this time, purely as all the places we’ve been in the last few days are all really close together, and we are moving fairly swiftly to cover as much as we can in the time we have! First up, Nara. We got the train from Kyoto to Nara in the afternoon and it only took about an hour because these districts are all in the same triangle area of Japan. We dumped our bags at our hostel (best yet, I had a double bed) and headed out to begin exploring, first stop, Nara Park to feed the bowing deer.

After the initial chaos, it was the the best experience ever (I feel like I say everything I do is the best experience ever) but it genuinely was super amazing and incredibly heartwarming. There was an initial moment at the beginning when I was genuinely terrified and didn’t want to continue, because we didn’t hide our food before going into the park and as soon as the deer saw you had food for them, they came right over and started nudging you and nibbling at your clothes, and one of them even bit by bum! I just wanted to run away. However, we got the hang of it and they bowed their head when you bowed yours and then they gently took the food, and we were even brave enough to let them take the food from our mouths, which was honestly the cutest experience ever. They were loving the human contact and loved being near us. Like most of the other animals we’ve seen so far on our travels, they too are wild and just roam around the huge park and surrounding streets (even crossing the road when the light is red forcing cars to wait for them), which is also lovely to see.

Next day we got up and headed back to Nara Park again, but this time to check out the temples and have a wander around the different streets and sights (and say hello to the deer again, of course). We visited the Central Golden Temple and Kofuku-Ji which were both really cool. I have realised how obsessed I am with the pagodas and temples here, they all look so unique and beautiful. The park was full of temples so we just had to pick a few to see that stood out most to us because we could have walked for days, and I’m impressed with our decisions we made of what to see. The Central Golden Temple was particularly impressive and we could go inside and look and it was full of gold, and statues, flowers and signs, it was truly mesmorising (not photos allowed though).

The lads then went off and did their own thing for a bit as I was wasn’t feeling it, I was knackered and really just needed some downtime. I found a cute café where I pitched up and did some photo editing and writing before meeting up with them after their adventures for us all the jump on the train to Osaka for stop number four. We’ve not been playing it very safe with accommodation so far in Japan, booking like a day in advance each time we change city, and up until now we’ve managed okay, but we found out that there is a national holiday in Japan this weekend as well as a festival in Osaka meaning there was either no places to stay or if there were, they were like triple the price of anything normal. We scrambled around and I managed to get a hostel for £77 (what on earth) for the night, but we’re also exhausted from moving locations every single day so we needed to find somewhere to settle for a few days after this.

After getting here I realised how tired I was. Travel reality check for a minute. We’d been moving around a lot since arriving in Japan, we knew we would be as we wanted to cover a lot in not much time, but I think this move was the one that put the nail in the coffin to my exhaustion. I wanted to just sit and do some life admin, photo editing, blog updating, yanoe just chilled vibes, watch a film and relax. Sometimes you forget that you need ‘do nothing’ days when you’re travelling, like you would have at home some times. I was tired in Nara so took some time to chill out but it obviously wasn’t enough because by nighttime I was sat in my very expensive bunk bed in tears on the phone to home. It passed and I had a good night sleep and I was ready to go again the next day.

Back to happy moments, Osaka there was so much I wanted to do! I think this was the place I was most excited about maybe? Our agenda was packed for here so day one was busy! First up I had to check out of this hostel and into my next, so I travelled there and dumped my bags and then headed to a shop called Glänta, to make my own custom ring. I had seen it on TikTok and knew it was something I would enjoy doing. After the last few days I needed to focus on something that made me happy and being creative like this was right up my street. I got to pick my metal for my ring, and my design, and also an engraving! I got it engraved with the word ‘world’ on it, just as a reminder to me that I get to live this life each day and explore the world. I love it so much and will always remember making this ring whilst travelling.

I walked through Dotonbori to get to my first stop and knew I wanted to explore it more so spent some time walking around here after, and I must say, I think it’s one of my favourite spots! It’s proper cool and quirky. There was a ferris wheel as part of a building which had a huge 3D sign on it, and that’s when I realised looking around, that most of the signs were 3D and stood out, it was really quirky and cool and really reminded me of Camden back home. There was graffiti on some of the walls which looked stunning and lots of cool shops that I wanted to come back and explore. I didn’t spend too long as I met up with the others I was travelling with and we got some lunch together in the local area.

After grabbing some food, I headed to Shitenno-Ji Temple, which is one of Japan’s oldest temples and the first ever to be built by the state. Again, stunning. There was a little market here too which was lovely to walk around and see the different bits and pieces there. There was also this amazing collection of little statues which I definitely wanted to take home with me. Absolutely adorable and stood looking at some of the little designs for a while. This temple seemed a little more displaced than some of the others we’ve seen, they’ve been as part of parks and surrounded by beautiful nature, these however, were just off of a street and had a real different vibe about them, it didn’t take away the wow factor though.

Next up was a train ride to a different part of town to watch the sunset from Tempozan Osaka Wheel, which did not disappoint. I’ve seen some of the best sunsets of my life whilst travelling Asia over the last six weeks, and I’m so excited to see even more for the foreseeable too. We definitely try and make it part of our day finding a spot to watch the sun go down as it is such a remarkable experience. Apparently this ferris wheel is the biggest in the world (it was quite big!) and the views spanned over the sea and the city and we had 360 views around us of water, mountains and skyscrapers, we had it all really.

Final stop of the day was Kaiyukan Aquarium (the biggest aquarium in the world!) and again, what an experience. It had almost everything there, seals, dolphins, whale sharks, crabs, squid, penguins, otters, turtles, fish, and more. We couldn’t believe how big it was and we saw so many incredible creatures living their lives. We walked around for ages and it just kept going on and on and it really highlighted the sheer size of this place! One amazing feature was the huge tank right in the middle resembling the pacific ocean, and it spanned for the entire length of the aquarium. We started at the top and worked our way down and we could see the animals at all different levels as we walked through.

Monday was the day for Universal Studios Japan. I felt my inner child screaming as I was so excited. I did not struggle waking up this morning, I mean, I did a little because it was an early start, but, it was so worth it. We headed to the park and as soon as I saw the Universal signs I started getting teary. Felt like a whole child again about to have the best day ever. Walking through the different worlds and being immersed in each was beyond amazing. Despicable Me, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Hollywood and more. There was so much to explore and the rides were just out of this world, including some of them using new 4D effects to really make you feel like you’re part of something. It was a super long day with lots of queue, which was expected, but it didn’t take away from the magic of what we’d experienced. I left feeling super content.

Tuesday I headed back to Glänta to make my mumma a custom ring too, and me another one as I loved my first one so much. It was also a really joyful experience and something I really enjoyed, so I was happy to be able to do it again. It allowed me to have some downtime whilst still feeling productive and that I was doing something worthwhile. I then headed to some of the quirky shops in Dotonburi, I genuinely do not know how I didn’t buy more than I did. I have no room in my backpack and didn’t want to pay the ridiculous shipping fees to get stuff home so had to have a little self-control, but I definitely need to come back with an empty suitcase on a trip one time just to do some shopping! I grabbed some dinner and explored Dotonburi at night, and it was even better than the day time, including having a ‘pinch me’ moment that this was my life right now, and was more than ready for an early night after this ahead of a longer travel day tomorrow beginning to slowly make my way up to Tokyo.

Final day in Osaka and there is still so much I want to do here that I just didn’t manage to do because I needed to slow my pace down a lot to recoup. But as I often tell myself, and others tell me, it just means you can come back again. Osaka is a place I will definitely be returning too! Next stop, a little more with nature and I’m super excited to be heading here via bullet train too! I’m off to spend a few days in Fuji. See you there, Mads x