NARA: Izasa ゐざさ

When travelling between Kyoto and Osaka, if time permits, I highly recommend a stopover to Nara.
And what's there to do in Nara?

DEER GALORE!!!

Please do not underestimates these deers, they'd chase you down when they see you holding deer biscuits you can purchase from pushcart vendors at a cheap price of... $5 from memory. but i may be lying hahaha. 

Speaking of which, if you do not want to purchase deer biscuits, PLEASE PLEASE do not tempt the deers with other things.

I saw this Chinese family consisting of grandparents, parents and children, who were ill mannered enough to trick the deer with... MAP OF NARA. They were holding the map and bringing it close to the deer mouth, and then the deer bites it and its like both of them are playing tug of war. And obviously cause paper tears easily, the deer will have part of the map in its mouth, and its just chewing and chewing and swallowing away.

SERIOUSLY?

Being an animal lover, I got REALLY upset. I actually told the family off and then proceeded to pry the map out of the deer's mouth. 

Anyway.. just introducing Nara a little - The most popular tourist attraction and an UNESCO World Heritage site: Todaiji

The temple was constructed as the head temple of all provincial buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 in order to lower the temple's influence on government affairs

With Todaiji's main hall - daibutsuden, in the background. It is the world's largest wooden buidling, housing one of Japan's largest bronze statues of buddha. 

Chumon gate of Todaiji complex

Anyway, we decided to have lunch at Isaza which is located in the vicinity of Todaiji's temple. When in Nara, there are 2 specialties you have to try, the first being 1) Kakinoha Sushi and 2) Miwa somen

 Miwa somen - Originally known as mugi-nawa (“wheat strings”), noodles have been produced for more than 1,200 years in the Miwa area (present-day Sakurai City). High-quality wheat flour is made into dough, then stretched to form noodles no more than 1 mm thick. In winter, the snow-white noodles can be seen drying outside on special racks in the cold, dry air

 kakinoha sushi, or persimmon leaf sushi. In the above photo, it is the leaf wrapped sushi on the left

A specialty born of Nara’s long history and favorable climate is kaki-no-ha zushi (persimmon leaf sushi). A local dish of southern Nara, it consists of vinegared rice topped with mackerel or salmon and wrapped in a persimmon leaf. The aroma of the persimmon leaf gives the sushi a mellow flavor.

Really highly recommended to order this set 1680yen, it has both kakinoha sushi and miwa somen as well as 2 tempura prawns (:


Izasa ゐざさ
Address: 〒630-8212 奈良県奈良市春日野町16
Area: Kasugano-cho, Nara-shi, Nara-ken, Japan
Nearest Station: Nara (奈良) & Kintetsu Nara (近鉄奈良