Day 6: Taifu jusan-go

Seems the typhoon has followed us here to Nara. This morning, between downpours, we headed over to a covered shopping street and brought back some pastries and coffee for breakfast. After eating them and then lounging around the hotel for a spell waiting for the rain to subside again, we headed back to the covered shopping street to meet toby’s hi-ojichan for lunch. Afterwards, we wandered around window and actual shopping where toby’s grandmother bought him some nifty shoes. In the past 7 days toby has managed to outgrow one pair of shoes and we realized that the other pair that we brought is just too dorky looking to be worn out in public. Outfitted with his new shoes, toby quickly fell asleep so we returned to the hotel for a nap, a bath, and then some puddle stomping in the rain. Toby doesn’t have much experience with rain, so he thought the puddles were the best thing since, well, owls I guess, or maybe that noisy plastic car from Kyushu. After we dried off, we thought we were going to see a different part of town, but it turned out the taxi was just taking us to the covered shopping street area via an alternate route. We may not know much about Nara, but we do know that covered shopping street, which is really helpful if you’re eager to buy tiny, 1 cm tall porcelain cats, inflatable deer, or Frisbee sized dorayaki. It’s the place to go.