Bowing deer of Nara
If you're in Kyoto you should definitely pay a visit to Nara. It's about 45 mins from Kyoto on the local train, and is a lovely small town that many moons ago use to be the capital of Japan.
Nara is famous for 2 reasons... the giant Buddha and of course the bowing deer.
Firstly, be prepared for some interactions with some cheeky deer as you wonder around the park and make your way to the Todaiji Temple to see the Buddha.
The deer at Nara park are considered sacred by Japanese people because of the legend of mythological god Takemikazuchi arriving in Nara in the form of a white deer to protect the newly built capital.
There are vendors that sell biscuits that are safe for the deer to eat, if you buy a pack and bow to the deer they will usually bow to you, after which you of course give them a biscuit!
I made a deer friend...
Anyway, enough about deer, lets move onto GF food. I'd already brought along snacky food I could eat - crisps, chocolate, seed bars, fruit, and of course onigiri. There's a big supermarket at Nara train station, that I only realised was there on the way back - dang it! so if you haven't prepared don't fret there's LOADS of choice.
We needed picnic food as we were doing both Nara and the Fushimi Inari Shrine in the same day! Again, another great thing to do if you're in Kyoto, just steel yourself for the thousand steps to the top of the shrine!
Aaaand, back to Nara...
Walking back along the main street we came across a couple of chefs beating, hitting and punching a huge blob of Mochi/Daifuku into oblivion - naturally we were intrigued. This large lump of deliciousness was then put in a machine and then spewed out in small balls into soybean powder, these were quickly scooped up by the worker rolled in the powder and then served hot. I checked my GF thing and with the all clear happily tucked into one as we continued our stroll along the street - it was much more gooey than other Mochi I'd had, but still had the red bean paste in the middle and was of course yummy!
