Once outside we took an extended ramble around the complex with structures dating back as far as the seventh century before moving on through Nara Park to the nearby Kasuga Grand Shrine.
By this time we’d had close to three hours of temple and shrine-viewing so from there we headed back to the city centre, where we found a small teppan-style eatery for lunch. Madam had her heart set on a pancake, and I settled for beef noodles, both dishes cooked on the iron hot-plate in the middle of the table. We were seated on the western-style right hand side of the establishment while opposite us people sat at low traditional Japanese style no shoes and tatami tables.
From there we passed through narrow alleys lined with small shops, pausing to buy a second-hand kimono (1000-yen) before becoming more than a little disoriented as we attempted to find our way back to the hotel to reclaim the baggage.
It took us about an hour to make our way back to Kobe, with the last leg a very fast limited express after a change of train in Osaka.
Arriving at the Okura Hotel, we opted for another brief rest before the night’s appointment with Diamond Chef and Drinking Dude. We caught a shuttle bus back to Sannomiya, Madam headed off to replenish the finances at the Post Office while I went for a browse in Tower Records in the hope I’d be able to locate the new album by the reformed, but sadly Stanshall-less Bonzo Dog Band.
As she headed off towards the Post Office, Madam expressed the opinion that I was highly unlikely to find what was looking for because it was, she thought, far too obscure an item for a Japanese music emporium to have in stock.
As it turned out, the Bonzos album was nowhere to be found, but a brief browse through what was on offer revealed (and, no I’m not making this up) the equally-obscure Doctor Strangely Strange, the first album by the J. Geils Band and an album by Ed Sanders called Beer Cans On The Moon which I seem to recall meeting an almost universal thumbs down when it was released in 1973.
I reckon, given enough time for a careful survey of the record racks I would have managed to uncover even more weird and wonderful obscurities.
As it was, however, the browsing was interrupted by the arrival of ‘Er Indoors who advised that the night’s dinner and drinking companions were waiting for us under the railway.