(peaceful music)
- Hey, guys, Ruchi here!
And we are in Nara, Japan.
Nara is a city in the south of Japan
in the Kansai region.
There are eight temples, shrines, and ruins here,
which are collectively known as
the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara
and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city of Nara was also the capital of Japan
before the emperor moved the capital to Kyoto.
In this video, we are gonna see some
of the best things to do in Nara
and two of my absolute favorites,
which are feeding the deer
and eating the delicious mochi.
Our first stop in Nara is the Kofuku-ji Temple.
This is a temple that has withstood
seven wars and many fires.
We first explore the peaceful temple grounds
and then make our way to the Nara Koen Park.
The park is just a simple landscape garden,
but the main attraction here is the hundreds
of deer that roam freely.
These are wild sika deer, they are considered
sacred by the Japanese, as they are believed
to be the messengers of the Shinto gods.
The deer here are not forced to stay here
or controlled or made to stay here
because of the tourists.
They are very, very well taken care of and well-fed.
If you want to feed the deer, you can
buy crackers, these crackers are called
shika senbei, they cost around 150 yen
for a pack of ten and even if you don't want
to feed them, you can, you don't have to,
you can just take a walk around.
My favorite thing is how they bow.
It's so cute to see, they would bow for crackers.
(cheerful music)
- We just bought snacks for the deer,
but remember to hide them, we're using our camera bag.
(men speaking in foreign language)
Wow, look at the motor control of their mouth.
(man speaking foreign language)
Hi.
You know it's in there, right?
Huh, you know it's in there.
No, don't like that,
"No, we don't, just give me my crackers."
(Avi laughing)
(gentle music)
- Three things to know before you go.
One, don't feed them chips or bread
or any of your snacks, because processed food
is really not good for them.
Second thing is if you have any cash or passports,
tickets, or maps, or any paper, that you be
very careful and to keep them in your bag,
because they will snatch it right out of your hand,
they're very aggressive.
And three, keep your kids safe,
because they like to follow you around
and bump into you for snacks, so little kids
might get kicked.
They just sit around, they are so cute.
And now for the second most important thing
to do in Nara, you have to eat the mochi.
You might have seen this viral clip
of the mochi pounding and oh my god,
this mochi is truly to die for.
(men yelling in foreign language)
Behind me is Nakatanidou, it is the most famous
mochi shop in Japan, it's known to be the fastest
mochi making.
(men yelling in foreign language)
(man yelling in foreign language)
Look at the line, like that,
there's actually one person to just control
the line, it's actually pretty crazy here.
We got a set of three for 490 yen,
which is about 2.50 bucks.
- [Avi] Looks great.
- Mochi is a traditional Japanese sweet
that is made by pounding glutinous rice
and it usually has a sweet filling like red bean
and it's coated with soybean powder.
(gentle music)
(crowd chattering) (child coughing)
Seriously, best mochi ever.
(child coughing)
(people yelling in foreign language)
The rice is so chewy and stretchy
and yet it's soft and there's so much red bean
inside, look.
Oh my god, I love the soybean powder outside,
it adds so much.
Just, it's awesome.
- We got back in the line, because it was so good.
This is such a nice mochi.
This is one of the best mochis I've ever had.
It's kind of cold, it's not hard,
and the red bean and soy works well together
and it's perfect.
- Mochi!
If you want to see the mochi pounding,
the best time to see it is at 11 a.m.,
you can also see it later in the day
at around 2 p.m., but it's just a matter of luck
sometimes, they run out and they make
a fresh batch and sometimes they don't, so.
After all the deer feeding, it's time to feed yourself.
There are a lot of places around the Nara Deer Park
that you can find for lunch,
but we decided to stop by this Kyoto ramen place,
it had a huge line in front of it
and by experience, we know that such places
will not disappoint.
Still waiting.
Oh my god, this ramen's amazing.
It was totally worth that wait.
The broth is so, so good, the pork is perfect,
I took all the pork from Avi's ramen.
This is a sesame chili paste,
there's a lemon peeling powder,
which adds so much to the broth, it's,
oh my god, it's so good with ramen.
Who thought lemon will be good in ramen?
And then you can add pepper or soy sauce.
I'm just gonna add the chili.
God.
After feeding the deer and eating the mochi,
if you still have time, you should stick
around in Nara, because it's one
of Japan's most traditional cities
and there's a lot more to do here.
So, three of the most important things
to do here are seeing the Nara Museum,
and the Todai-ji Temple and the Naramachi.
The Nara Museum is highly recommended
if you are interested in Buddhism.
Todai-ji Temple is one of the best temples
in Japan, because of the 16 meter high
Buddha statue inside.
And the Naramachi is one of the oldest preserved
merchant districts in Nara, which is really
great to see if you want to see Japan,
how it was over 100 years ago.
So that was our perfect day in Nara.
If you have a little more time, I recommend
staying in a traditional Japanese
(speaks in foreign language).
That is a really great experience.
It's such a cute little city and we will definitely
spend a few days wandering around,
but if you're short on time, one day is just perfect
for Nara and just don't miss the cute deer
and that delicious mochi.
All right, that's it for this video, guys.
We really hope you enjoyed watching it.
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(cheerful music)