A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 49 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hi did either of you happen to ask what type of deer these are .To have antlers and to not look that old and to be short (hight on all 4 hooves).If you remember when bambi was that tall he had spots and no antlers.
Laurie
Hi did either of you happen to ask what type of deer these are .To have antlers and to not look that old and to be short (hight on all 4 hooves).If you remember when bambi was that tall he had spots and no antlers.
Laurie
I didn't, I'm afraid. Now whether they cut the antlers to stop them growing, I don't know. Some certainly had stumps, which makes me wonder if they had that done to them...
They look like White Tail Deer, the same here in the states. Granted they wouldn't be close to people, they'd be back in the woods. But if that is the case, then they loose their antlers and grow new ones so that is probably what you are seeing, the new ones coming in. Just my opinion, I don't know if they are but they look like it.
What a lovely day, I can't imagine seeing all that in person. I'd love to get a chance to see all that one of these years.
Great update! Completely grossed out by the deer excrement for sale though - and since it was listed with chocolate peanuts, I may have trouble eating those now!
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Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
I've gotten behind by about 5 days but am all caught up now. Such a beautiful even in the rain. I can't believe you and Mark's stamina. I'm so sorry that you missed the geisha tour. That would've been really interesting but you saw some of the cool shopping district instead.
I see that you're using a DK guide book (at least that's what it looks like) those. We have one for Quebec. We just bought Glenn's folks London, Ireland, and Scotland DK guidebooks because they're planning a long trip there in the near future.
Anyways, looking forward to more.
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I see that you're using a DK guide book (at least that's what it looks like) those. We have one for Quebec. We just bought Glenn's folks London, Ireland, and Scotland DK guidebooks because they're planning a long trip there in the near future.
We do - I love the DK travel guides. I've got about 30 or 40 of them...
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Sunday 5 April – part four: seeing Nijo Castle at night
We had the idea of going to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner, as I had seen a menu and didn’t think it was too badly priced. The problem here is either that things are stupidly priced and, as Mark said, if we’re going to pay the equivalent of £100 (about $150) for dinner for the two of us, then we want to know it’s going to be good. Sadly we didn’t, as these are not necessarily gourmet places. That gave you an idea of the price of food. Then the prices that are reasonably priced – and by that I mean up to £50 or £60 (about $75 or $90) – don’t accept credit cards, so it’s catch 22, as we don’t want to use up that much cash on any one meal. Now you see why we end up in McDonald’s a lot of the time.
Anyway, it was down to the basement for dinner, but the menu outside the Japanese restaurant I had my eye on wasn’t what I had seen upstairs. I guess that was the lunch menu then… This one had nothing for less than 4000¥ (about £30) per person, so we passed and headed out to visit Nijo Castle instead.
We caught the subway, changing on to the other line that runs through the city and this seemed much newer, as it’s got gates that open to let you on to the train. I think those tend to be a newer invention. They certainly are in London anyway. When we got off at the stop by Nijo Castle, we quickly realised that we weren’t the only ones and everyone else seemed to be heading in the same direction as us. It took us a while to get out of the subway station and then to cross the road.
We followed the sea of humanity in front of us past the ticket office and we kept walking and kept walking. The line to get tickets went back some way and they had actually got it marked with a man carrying a sign which was a good idea. We got in line, as it seemed to be moving quite fast and indeed it did. We were buying our tickets less than 10 minutes later. I don’t know how they did it, but they had a good system in place.
Once we got inside, it really wasn’t busy at all. I guess making everyone line up for tickets limits how many people come in at any one time. They were very good at directly you around the route that they had created. At one point, we even saw something saying “route” that had been beamed on to the ground in front of us. Very cool.
You don’t get to go into the palace, in fact what you see at night is only a very small amount of the gardens, but they make sure that what you do see are the best bits and the bits with the most cherry blossom trees. They certainly were spectacular and well worth seeing and again, everyone was going nuts for them, with cameras out.
The only glimpse you get of the palace Some of the neat lighting displays
We walked slowly around, taking it all in and taking photos, as we went. It was truly a lovely sight.
As we got towards the end though, we were both starting to feel the cold and we were very glad when we rounded the final corner and saw that the stalls that had been our during the day were still there. We quickly found the one where we had got our tempura fish from yesterday and, although they weren’t selling that tonight, they were doing a very nice noodle fish and soup mix. It was absolutely gorgeous, although a bit on the salty side and, by the time I’d finished mine, I was craving some of the Coke that we had back at the hotel. We thanked them profusely in Japanese and headed out. Unfortunately, we were so hungry, we forgot to get photos of our dinner.
We caught the subway back to the hotel. Fortunately, it was nowhere near as busy on the way back. The amount of women we saw waiting for the train who were in kimonos was amazing. It’s really lovely to see so many women wearing them. It makes me think that they’re part of their roots and, rightly so, as Japan has a wonderful history. However, as we looked at them, we couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t exactly a practical thing to wear down here. : Having said that, they seemed to manage fine. I don’t think I would somehow!
When we got back to the station by our hotel, we came out a different way and found a cake shop, so grabbed a couple of cakes to finish off our dinner. A quick stop at Starbucks Coffee on the way back to the room to grab a hot chocolate (which turned out to be disgusting, as it was basically just warm milk, which I really hate! ) and we headed back to the room.
After some time on the boards (free Internet access is great! ), it was time for bed and we went to sleep watching a very bizarre Japanese game show. Something to do with dangling people over a 100 foot drop and getting them to drop a ball down a tiny hole and making them swing through the air and then drop into water to see who could fly the furthest. I told you, bizarre….
Today we walked 3.63 miles The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the 60s. The best thing today was Todai-ji temple. The worst thing today was getting to grips with the subway system when we first went to use it. The funniest thing today was being rude about the deer and then getting my come-uppance seconds later. Today we tried going to Nara And the result was and it was easy to get to and fairly inexpensive and definitely worth visiting. The most magical moment today was walking into the Todai-ji temple and seeing all the cherry blossom there.
Next: I’ve never seen so much cherry blossom in my life!
Terrific update Cheryl! I love the night pictures, your commentary, and very cute Winnie the Pooh jacket you have on Looks like you and Mark had another fantastic day despite the gross hot chocolate from Starbucks (which honestly you would expect it to be better than tasting like warm milk from a Starbucks) and your noodles being too salty.
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I'm so sorry that you missed the geisha tour. That would've been really interesting but you saw some of the cool shopping district instead.
ºOº ~*~ 
We quickly found the one where we had got our tempura fish from yesterday and, although they weren’t selling that tonight, they were doing a very nice noodle fish and soup mix. It was absolutely gorgeous, although a bit on the salty side and, by the time I’d finished mine, I was craving some of the Coke that we had back at the hotel. We thanked them profusely in Japanese and headed out. Unfortunately, we were so hungry, we forgot to get photos of our dinner. 
: Having said that, they seemed to manage fine. I don’t think I would somehow! 
) and we headed back to the room. 
Looks like you and Mark had another fantastic day despite the gross hot chocolate from Starbucks (which honestly you would expect it to be better than tasting like warm milk from a Starbucks) and your noodles being too salty.
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I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
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