Cycling in Nara

People that are only watching and listening to the Western media might have a terrible image of the situation in Japan. I sincerely think that those media are looking for some sensational stories to sell and they do not realize how much they can be destructive for the whole Japanese Nation. I live in Osaka for about 2 years and I did not escape to France (I am French) after the March 11^th.

What I would like to say here is that I did not change anything in my daily life after the quake, tsunami or nuclear accident and I still practice the same hobby than before.

I go to work, take the same packed train everyday, go out with my friends… And as I like to ride bicycle I still do it, maybe even more than before.

Tea field

Every Saturdays I take my bike from Osaka, I try to reach roads with less traffic. This time I have decided to go to Nara.

When I first came to Japan, I only used trains to move around Kansai, and in my mind Nara was really far from Osaka. Once I could reach Nara by bicycle, I realized that Nara, Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto are really close to each other and that actually the trains between each city are pretty slow. Between Osaka and Nara there are about 50 kms (about 30 miles), if I am in a good day I need less than 2 hours to arrive at the Nara Park in the center of Nara.

The Nara Park is a huge park located on the East side of the city. The park is actually connected to mountains and wild spaces. This park is popular for its giant Buddha statue, the Todaiji, temples… and for the hundreds of deer that make this park so special.

One of the best inns to spend a night around the Nara Park is the Kankaso ryokan; this traditional ryokan is indeed within the Nara Park.

Here you can see a picture of my bike in front of the Kankaso building.

http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/db/nara/kankaso.htm 

Kankaso

 From the Nara Park I could climb the Mount Wakakusa, and later I found some tea fields, what a surprise! Tea fields do not exist in France or even in the whole Europe, so for me it really is an exotic landscape. I also found out that many of my Japanese friends did not know about tea fields in Nara.

Nara Park

So from Osaka and in less than 4 hours by bicycle, I could see the Nara Park, many deer and tea fields; a very enjoyable day.

Vincent Penez