We stood while eating.. maybe the food would be digested more easily.
Nara, to me, felt like a prefecture much more ancient than kyoto. It was the first permanent capital of Japan. Best known for its temples, and the areas we've been to in Nara looked much more rural.
Our first stop was at Horyuji(法隆寺
We had 2 options for travelling to the temple from the station, either by bus or on foot. Having told that it will take 20 mins on foot to reach, we decided to walk there. However, the estimations given by japanese couldn't be trusted, coz their walking speeds were probably..those u will see in CBD. The long walkway that leads to entrance of the temple:
The 'landmark' that we always look for when we reach, a common sight for most world heritage temples.
The entrance fee to the main temple was a massive 1000yen(S$13), hence we decided not to go in. Instead, we took pictures in the surrounding compounds.
There's still plenty to look at around the temple..
The pagoda and temple which we would have seen if we went in..
We then took a bus, our most expensive bus ride in Japan at 560yen(S$7), to the next location, Yakushiji.
Again, due to time and financial constraints, we decided against entering the temple. The famous structure for this temple was the 3 storied pagoda, said to be the most graceful structure in Japan.
We then walked across the 'super-rural' areas to reach another place of interest, Rowhouse for Stubborn Craftsman. The entrance fee deterred us from entering, and since we had attended technical lessons in secondary school before, we walked out of the place again. Japan is full of such railway tracks, where the pedestrians/vehicles cross them so frequently.
We took a bus thinking that it would get us to Nara Machi area, only to realise that we took the wrong direction(again!). The bus driver was kind enough though, to ask us to alight to take the opposite direction, w/o paying the bus fare at all. It had been a hot and sunny 3-day period while we were touring Kyoto/Osaka/Nara.
Alas, we reached Kofukuji(興福寺
This 5 storey pagoda is the landmark for the temple 
The temple had plenty of open spaces for the public to sit around, chill out, enjoy the scenery. We then had our snacks of 'ice-balls' and small puffs.
Our final stop in Nara, Todaiji(東大寺
Deers were a common sight in the area, since it's called a 'deer park'. Packets of deer food were for sale, for those who wanted to feed the friendly deers.
It was clever of the vendors.. to set up souvenir shops along the path to the temple. Plenty of kids were seen buying the souvenirs too. 
The Daibutsuden Hall, the world's LARGEST wooden structure.
It is the home of the 'Great Buddha of Nara', a 15m gigantic statue, weighing approx. 25 tonnes.
There were 2 bodhisattvas beside the main one, whom i suppose is Kannon bodhisattva.
There were a few other statues.. whom i suppose are the guards of the buddhas
A wooden replica of the temple.
Look at how detailed the model is, even the buddha statue was replicated..
See a guy at the left side of the picture? He seemed so tiny in front of the mighty buddha..
'Lunch'(at 5pm) was instant noodles at a convenience store in Nara, near to the train station. We had to rush back to Kyoto. Japanese instant noodles, however, were known to be tastier than the ones we find in Singapore.
Gion, the area where Geishas are known to be spotted in. This complex is a tourist attraction frequented by loads of tourists.
We didn't enter this building, but the one beside it. Looked very grand to me though
The program package costs 2800yen(S$36), and lasted for about an hour. Well-worth i must say, given that we were introduced to 7 traditional Japanese cultures. First on show was the Tea Ceremony. Was quite a short one, which i think they skipped a few steps.
2 of the audience volunteered to have a taste of the green tea
Next were the Koto Music and Ikebana(Flower Arrangement).
Looked like yang qin for me
Flower arrangement, if i'm not wrong, was a skill which geishas have to be good at as well
This is Gagaku (Court Music), where a masked performer 'danced', as the people at the side play the music. According to my 2 musically-inclined travelling partners, the music was out of tune.. :X 
The 5th item was Kyogen(Ancient Comic Play), which was a short, entertaining play by these 3 actors. Their expressions were very exaggerated, comical, n wasn't really important that we don't understand the Japanese they were rattling on.
Kyomai(Kyoto Style Dance), performed by either Maiko(trainee-geisha) or Geisha. Fred took a video of them dancing, but due to the limit set by youtube, I couldn't upload.. Can anyone help? Judging by the price we paid for the entire performance, i suppose these 2 are Maiko..
The last item for the performance was Bunraku(puppet play), a performance played by 3 performers clad in black. They manipulated this life-size doll together, to the extent that it looked as if the doll was alive.
Here's a clip of their performance:After the show, we took a picture with this somehow-startled staff.. I found her nice-looking but fred n balex thought otherwise..
A picture with the famous Gion district.. Plenty of restaurants at over-the-hill prices..
all of them had traditional looking designs..
A snapshot of a geisha
We hesitated at stopping the Geishas we saw on the streets, and they walked real fast as well. And finally when we decided to muster our courage to ask them, we couldn't find any on the street. After walking round n round in the district for abt half an hour, I finally spotted one crossing the street. It's our final chance to snap a shot. I walked up, interrupted her conversation with her 'client'/'friend', and she agreed. As we were taking photos, the foreigners around us clicked their cameras away too, n i felt like an instant star. Haha! They probably didn't dare to approach the geisha due to communication barrier.After i returned from my trip, my friend told me, the geisha was actually kind enough to let us take a photo of her, coz we were supposed to pay them.
Dinner was at about 9pm, at this restaurant around the area. The veg and rice were by the way, free flow.
This young waitress served us, n i thought she's pretty(again). However, upon taking a pic with her, I then realised she looked tired, probably from the long day at work. Honestly, I think the picture didn't do her justice. Realised that my vest is gone in this pic? Ok, a malu thing happened for this trip. 
I spilled the bowl of miso soup, onto my vest n jeans. In the process, I dirtied the exquisite woven chair i was sitting on. However, instead of demanding payment (of the damaged chair) from me, the staff were very friendly, n the first thing they did was to give me plenty of wet tissues to clean myself. They kept asking if I was alright too. *impressed* Was relieved that the cost of the chair wasn't billed into our dinner.By the time we got back to Kyoto station from Gion, the usual exit was closed again, and we had to find our way back from unknown territory. By the way, Kyoto station is a huge station which looked like an airport terminal more than a station. *thumbs up*
