A Nara Day Trip: How to See the Best Spots Fast

A Nara day trip is a great idea if you like to see historical sites, old temples or pet a Japanese deer. Here is what you should see there.

If you are visiting Kyoto, Japan, or close by, do not skip the town of Nara. It is full of history, old buildings and other things to see.

Nara is a fascinating place since it has so many places that are in the UNESCO World Heritage List and at the same time you will be able to meet some of the tame and friendly deer that roam free in the town.

We spent a day in Nara and fell in love with this unique and compact town. It is impossible to see all the sites there in one day, but we were able to visit all the most notable ones and enjoy the fall foliage in Nara-koen Park.

We originally planned to drop Nara off from our travel list if we got too busy, but luckily we didn’t. It ended up being one of the best days on our trip to Japan.

Nara is easy to visit if you are either in Kyoto or Osaka. We arrived in Nara by train, and walked to Nara Park to see the temples there. There is a bus going from the railway station to the park as well, but we like to walk and see some of the local life.

Nara

Nara is a semi-rural city in Nara Prefecture in Kansai region. Over 350,000 people live there, with about 3,000 of them being foreigners. Nara was Japan’s first permanent capital from 710 to 784.

Nara was established at the same time as buddhism started to take root in Japan. Because of that, a huge amount of cultural history was born in Nara, like temples and statues.

A total of eight of Nara’s historical sites such as temples, shrines and archaeological sites have been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Together they are referred as Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. Most of them are located close to Nara Park.

More than 9 million people visit Nara every year.

Best spots in Nara for day visitors

Nara downtown

The best spots in Nara are definitely in Nara-koen Park. If you decide to walk you can go through the downtown of Nara and the parl as well. It takes about 10-15 minutes to walk from the railway station to the park along the Noborioji-dori avenue.

The main street in the downtown area is called Sanjo-dori Street and it is full of restaurants, cafes and shopping. It’s a great place to stop by if you need lunch or dinner.

Nara Park and the tame deer

The city is very compact and it was easy to walk everywhere there. Right before we got to the park area, we saw some of Nara’s famous deer. They were just casually walking in the middle of the road stopping all the traffic.

These Japanese deer are sacred to the Kasuga Shrine. There are over 1,000 deer roaming freely in Nara, and they are very friendly. You can pet them and feed them and take pictures with them.

We were surprised at how calm they were. Only a couple of them followed us around and tried to poke us in hopes of getting some food. Other than that, even our 4 year old was able to pet the deer.

If visiting here, bring some small change since they sell deer crackers in the park so you can feed them. 

Kohfuku-ji Temple and the Five-storied Padoga

The temple area in Nara Park is impressive. At first, we arrived at Kohfuku-ji Temple and the Five-storied Pagoda next to it. They are both on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Kohfuku-ji was originally built in 669, but it was transferred to it’s current location in 710. It is one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Japan and inside of it is the National Treasure Museum. 

The Five-Storied Pagoda on the other hand is the second highest padoga in Japan as it reaches 50.1 meters. It is considered to be a national treasure and inside of it are the Four Buddhas of the Four Directions.

Our little daughter with her blond hair got a lot of attention in Japan and people would sometimes give her some gifts. In front of the temple we met a nice Japanese man who gave her a cute origami and later also gave me one. We really loved the hospitality and friendliness of the Japanese people.

Visit Todai-ji and the Great Buddha

One of the most memorable places we visited on our trip to Japan was the Todai-ji Temple, and the Great Buddha inside it.

The current temple is from the year 1709 and is only two thirds of it’s original size. But it still is the biggest wooden building in the world. Two temples before this one were destroyed in fires.

Over 2 million people helped with the re-construction of the giant buddha and the temple. 350,000 of them were actually building the temple, while others would help by bringing food, clothing, wood and other materials needed.

All the bronze in Japan was used in the Great Buddha, and the government of Japan nearly bankrupted the country due to this project. As of today, it is still the world’s biggest bronze statue.

The buddha itself (Daibutsu) was ready in the year 751, and it is 49 feet (15 metres) tall weighing around 500 tons. Over the years it has been repaired due to earthquakes and other damage.

It is hard to describe our feelings when we first saw the temple and the Great Buddha. For some reason we weren’t expecting anything this beautiful. The temple looked magnificent against the blue, sunny sky, and the Buddha was immense. Pictures don’t really do justice to this place.

Next to the Great Buddha, there were two Boddhisatva statues and a Kokuzo Bosatsu statue. They also had a small souvenir shop. 

Yoshikien Garden

When you start walking back, you should go through the Yoshikien Garden between Kohfuku-ji and Todai-ji Temple. It was originally built for Kohfuku-ji Temple priest residences.

The garden is named after the river that goes through the garden; Yoshikigawa River, and it has three areas: a pond garden, a moss garden and a tea ceremony garden.

In autumn, you can see beautiful fall foliage there and cherry blossoms in the spring.

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After spending some time in Tokyo we really enjoyed Nara, as it was so much smaller and easy to navigate. Most things we wanted to see were fairly close to each other, so we were able to walk everywhere.

Just note, that most temples and the garden close quite early, so you might want to leave shopping or feeding the deer for evening, or even consider staying the night in Nara. We ended up returning to Kyoto, but this hotel next to the railway station was recommended to us.

While touring around Japan for two weeks, both Nara and Kyoto became our favorites even though they were quite different from each other. Kyoto also had a lot to see, and we were even able spot some geishas there, but due to its size, getting around in Kyoto required much more planning.

A day in Nara ended up being much more fun than we even expected. I truly recommend to everyone travelling in Japan to visit Nara!

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