Trip to Nara

Nara is one of the ancient former capitals of Japan, and the supposed origin of Tamiko's grandmother's family name "Nara".

The first thing we saw when we got off the train was this gentleman making mochi, pounded rice cakes. The pounding seems to be still done by hand in the wooden mortar to the right, but a machine was blooping the dough into balls.

Nara is famous for its sacred deer, who wander calmly amoung Nara's famous pagoda and temples and bite you if you don't feed them.

That night there was a ceremony in which a local mountain is set on fire