Get the hotel's free breakfast, get a pretty okay latte from 7-11. For a budget hotel and for the price we paid, it was a nice extra that they still provided onigiris and a bottled tea for breakfast.
Take the train to Nara. The city being pretty empty for the New Year holidays, we barely saw people between train transfers.
Walked to Naha Deer Park from Kintetsu Nara station. Pet deer. Buy crackers, bow, and feed deer. Get your coat bitten by a big deer trying to get more crackers from you. And for the love of god, feed the deer with only the crackers being sold at the park.
Walk a little bit more into the park and try to find some straggler deer apart from the deer crowd if you have crackers. Being chased around by a pack of deer is not fun.
Todai-Ji Museum
We skipped going into Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall) as it was pretty crowded (we just admired the Great Buddha from afar) and instead went into the Todai-ji Museum.
We paid JPY600 each/JPY1,200 total for the tickets. The museum also had a gift shop where I brought postcards and a magnet for our fridge.
Tonkatsu Ganko
I think we hit 10k steps just walking around the park area so I was pretty tired by lunch time. We went back to Higashimuki Shopping Street near the train station and lined up for Tonkatsu Ganko.
Most restaurants that are open during the New Year holiday add a sort of tax/surcharge for added workers' pay (at least I hope it does go to the workers).
I don't know if my tiredness and hunger added to the experience but when I tell you, this was the best tonkatsu I ever had. Crispy on the outside yet still juicy on the inside, premium cut pork.
Nakatanidou
After lunch we were pretty full but we had to drop by the famous mochi-making place Nakatanidou. They post the times when a performance will be held and we were lucky to arrive just before one.
The front immediately got crowded over and I wasn't able to see the pounding well but I was still happy to be there lol. My husband who is significantly taller than me did see better and was able to take better videos for me. We bought a 3-pack of the freshly-made mochi for later. Kinda regretted not getting more when we ate them back in the hotel.
