Three days in Nara: the capital before Kyoto, now run by deer
Two nights in one hotel: a pagoda and the old merchant lanes on arrival, the Great Buddha and the lantern shrine across the park on the full day, and two quiet western temples on the way out.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Nara
- Places
- 7 across 3 days
Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784, and it has never quite been anything else since. The city that grew up around the court kept its temples when the court left for Kyoto, and it has more buildings designated National Treasures than anywhere else in the country. Eight of them are on the UNESCO list as the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.
What makes it different from Kyoto is the scale. The great sights sit in one enormous park on the eastern edge of town, a twenty minute walk from the station, and you can see the important ones on foot in a day and a half without ever getting on a bus. Kyoto makes you cross a city between temples. Nara makes you cross a lawn.
The deer are not a gimmick. Several hundred of them live in the park, protected for centuries as messengers of the Kasuga shrine's deity, and they have long since worked out that people carry food. They will follow you, nose your bag and bob their heads at you until you produce a cracker.
Three days is two full ones plus the ends of your travel days, which is the right amount: a first afternoon in the old town, a whole day in the park, and a last morning at the two temples out west that most day trippers never reach.
Highlights
- Standing under the Great Buddha, and then under the hall that was built around him
- The stone lantern approach to Kasuga Taisha through old forest
- Sake tasting in a working brewery in the Edo period merchant quarter
- Yakushi-ji and Toshodai-ji at Nishinokyo, ten minutes apart and half empty
Where to stay
Nara, two nights
One base throughout. The park sights, the merchant quarter and both stations sit inside a circle you can cross on foot in half an hour.
The ground rises gently from the stations east towards the forest, so days that start at the temples and end back in town run downhill.
Day by day
Day 1 in Nara
Kofuku-ji, Naramachi and a sake brewery
The first afternoon belongs to the low ground between the stations and the park, which is where the city actually lives. Kofuku-ji stands on the terrace at the top of Sanjo-dori and is the obvious first thing you see; the old merchant lanes of Naramachi start a few minutes south of it.
Arrive by mid afternoon and this is a comfortable half day. If your train gets in late, drop the brewery and keep the walk.
- 14:30
Kōfuku-ji
ReligiousThe temple of the Fujiwara clan, and the first thing you see coming up from the station. Two pagodas stand in the grounds, a three storey one and a five storey one that has spent centuries trading the title of tallest in Japan with a rival in Kyoto. The five storey one has been under a long restoration, so check whether it is out of its scaffolding before you plan a photograph. The Central Golden Hall and the octagonal halls are open regardless.
- 15:45
Naramachi
OtherSouth of the temple the streets narrow into the old merchant quarter, laid out in the eighth century and rebuilt in the Edo period as a town of machiya, the deep wooden shophouses with lattice fronts. Several are open as small museums, and the rest are cafes, craft shops and houses. It takes an hour to wander and there is no route to follow.
- 17:15
Harushika Brewery
EatA working sake brewery in the middle of Naramachi, and the best thing in it. A few hundred yen buys a flight of six of their own sakes, poured in order and explained as you go, from dry to fruity, with pickled narazuke to eat between them. Last pours are in the late afternoon, so this is not an after dinner plan.
- 19:00
Dinner off Sanjo-dori
EatThe side lanes between Naramachi and the station are full of small izakaya. Nara eats early; be sitting down by half past seven.
With more time: Sarusawa Pond sits at the bottom of the Kofuku-ji terrace and reflects the pagoda, which is why the same photograph appears on half the postcards in town. It is two minutes off the route between the temple and Naramachi.
Day 2 in Nara
The Great Buddha, a borrowed garden and the lantern shrine
One day covers the whole of Nara Park if you take it west to east, which is also the order that gets you into Todai-ji before the coaches. The hall opens early. By eleven the approach through the great gate is a slow shuffle of school groups and deer.
From the temple it is a level walk south and east to the shrine, through open parkland and then into the old forest on the hillside. The last stretch, between stone lanterns under cedars, is the part people remember.
- 08:30
Tōdai-ji
ReligiousThe Great Buddha is about fifteen metres of seated bronze, the largest Buddha statue in Japan, first cast in the 750s and repaired after fire and earthquake many times since. The hall around it is one of the biggest wooden buildings anywhere. Come in through the Nandai-mon gate, where two enormous carved guardians glower down from either side. Behind the statue, a pillar has a hole cut through its base the size of the Buddha's nostril; squeezing through is said to bring enlightenment, and works better if you are eight.
- 10:30
Isui-en Garden
VisitA small walled garden five minutes from the temple gate, laid out so that the hills and the temple roofs beyond the wall become part of the composition. It is the one place in the park with no deer in it, and there is a restaurant on site if you want an early lunch looking at the pond.
- 12:00
Lunch in the park
EatOptions thin out east of the museum, so eat before you climb towards the shrine rather than after.
- 14:00
Kasuga Taisha
VisitThe Kasuga clan shrine, vermilion under the trees, approached along a path lined with hundreds of moss covered stone lanterns donated over the centuries. Inside, bronze lanterns hang in rows from every eave. Look for the rack of donated sake barrels near the gate. The approach through the primeval forest is worth as much as the buildings, so walk in rather than taking the bus to the top.
With more time: The Nara National Museum sits between the temple and the shrine and holds one of the best collections of Buddhist sculpture in the world. For two weeks each autumn it shows treasures from the Todai-ji storehouse, which are otherwise never on view and draw queues from all over the country.
Day 3 in Nara
Toshodai-ji and Yakushi-ji at Nishinokyo
Two of Nara's eight World Heritage sites are out at Nishinokyo, southwest of the centre and away from the park entirely. They are ten minutes' walk from one another, they are usually close to empty, and they are the best possible use of a last morning.
Leave your bags at the station. Both temples are a few minutes by train from the middle of town, and you can be back with time for an afternoon departure.
- 09:15
Tōshōdai-ji
ReligiousFounded by Ganjin, the Chinese monk who spent a decade and his eyesight trying to reach Japan and finally arrived in 753 to teach the rules of ordination. His grave is in the grounds. The main hall is heavy, plain, eighth century timber, and after the gold of Todai-ji it is a relief.
- 10:45
Yakushi-ji
ReligiousTen minutes south, a temple with twin pagodas flanking the main hall, which is a silhouette you will recognise afterwards. Most of the complex was rebuilt in the 1970s after fire, but the east pagoda is the original and dates from 730. The Yakushi trinity inside the main hall is one of the great pieces of Japanese Buddhist sculpture.
With more time: The Heijokyu palace site, where the whole city began, is a huge open field between Nishinokyo and the centre with a reconstructed gate and audience hall standing in it. It is free, it is rarely busy, and the museums at either end explain what you are looking at.
Before you go
Where to stay
Stay between the two stations and Sanjo-dori, the street that runs east towards the park. Everything in these three days is either a walk from there or a short bus ride, and you will use the walk twice a day.
Nara has two stations and they are not interchangeable. Kintetsu Nara is right at the foot of the park and much closer to the sights; JR Nara is about a kilometre further west. If you are choosing a hotel by the map, choose by the Kintetsu one.
Most visitors come in from Kyoto or Osaka for the day and leave by six, so evenings in Nara are unexpectedly quiet. That is the whole argument for sleeping here.
Getting in and around
From Kyoto, the Kintetsu limited express takes about 35 minutes and the ordinary express about 50, twice an hour either way. From Osaka it is a little over half an hour. There is no airport; arrivals from Kansai International come by rail through Tennoji or by the hourly airport bus, which takes about ninety minutes.
Inside the city, walk. The standard circuit from Kintetsu Nara up through the temples to the shrine and back is about six kilometres of flat park path, and it is the nicest part of being here.
The two temples at Nishinokyo are the exception. They are out to the southwest, reachable on the Kintetsu Kashihara line in a few minutes or on the excursion bus that runs from both stations. A one day bus pass costs a few hundred yen and pays for itself if you use it twice.
The deer, and how to handle them
Vendors around the park sell shika-senbei, flat brown crackers made for the deer. Buying a packet is the entire transaction: the moment one animal sees it, five more arrive, and they are not gentle about queueing. Hold the crackers above your head and you will be nudged, followed and occasionally butted.
Feed them yourself rather than handing the packet to a small child, who is roughly deer height and will be surrounded. In autumn, keep clear of the stags that still have their antlers, particularly up in the forest behind Kasuga Taisha.
Nothing else in Nara requires this kind of briefing, which tells you something about the deer.
Eating and drinking
Nara's own dishes are quiet ones: kakinoha-zushi, cured fish pressed into rice and wrapped in a persimmon leaf, and chagayu, a thin rice porridge cooked in green tea that tastes considerably better than it sounds. Both turn up in set lunches around Naramachi.
Narazuke are vegetables pickled in sake lees, sold everywhere and served alongside tastings at the brewery. They are sweet, strong and divide people immediately.
For dinner, the lanes running south off Sanjo-dori are where locals eat. Kitchens here close earlier than in Osaka, so aim for seven rather than nine.
Nara is the rare old capital that is still the right size. Two full days covers its greatest buildings without a single rushed morning, and the third half day out at Nishinokyo is what separates a visit from a stop.
Go early, walk east, and buy the crackers last.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- Is Nara worth more than a day trip from Kyoto?
- A day trip gets you Todai-ji and the deer, which is most of what people come for. Staying gets you the evening, when the coaches have gone and the park empties, and it gets you Nishinokyo and Naramachi, which day trippers almost never reach.
- How much walking is involved?
- The main day is about six kilometres on flat park paths, with a gentle climb at the end towards the shrine. Nothing here needs more than ordinary shoes.
- When should I go?
- Late October and November for autumn colour in the park, and early April for cherry blossom, are the two peaks and the two busiest times. Summer is humid. Winter is cold, clear and nearly empty, and the temples look better in it than the photographs suggest.
- Are the deer safe?
- They are wild animals that have lost their fear of people, which is a specific combination. They bite, shove and follow. Keep food out of open bags, feed them a cracker at a time, and give stags with antlers a wide berth in autumn.
- Can I change the plan?
- Copy it into your own trip and move things around; the second day is the only one whose order really matters, because it depends on reaching Todai-ji early.