Nara is one of the best day trips you can do from either Kyoto and Osaka. We decided to visit from Osaka, mostly because the accommodation is cheaper and therefore all our days in Kyoto would be spent in Kyoto, plus as you’ll know we absolutely fell in love with Osaka so we definitely didn’t mind factoring in another night there.
Nara is fantastic and offers a peaceful park of shrines and temples for a real walk back in time. It’s also most famous for its residents: the most polite deer you will ever meet!
Nara was historically the capital of Japan, before the capital was moved to Kyoto, and eventually Tokyo. In this respect it reminded me a little of Ayutthaya in Thailand, which was the historic capital and now home to lots of fascinating ruins and temples. In fact, I feel the same about both of them too – beautiful, peaceful places to visit in countries that can be chaotic; an oasis away from the massive city you’re day tripping from.
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We didn’t have a particular plan for Nara, which was nice as it meant we wouldn’t be rushing around trying to see lots of things. My plan, literally, was to arrive at the JR station, walk down the road towards the park, and then explore the park at our leisure.
Unfortunately, we woke up and it was raining.
I swear I have never seen photos of Nara on a sunny day. I am convinced it’s perpetually raining, and therefore I decided we were going to get the authentic experience, and we certainly didn’t let it stop us! However it did mean a slightly later start, as we weren’t in any hurry to get going.
We arrived into the JR station, which is almost a half hour walk from the park. This meant we could explore a little bit of Nara proper, rather than just going there for the park and the deer, which led us into a fateful arcade where our friend won a cursed stretchy baby toy, which then followed us for the rest of the trip like some sort of horror movie character.
So while I don’t necessarily recommend taking the JR line to Nara, it did at least provide one of the best inside jokes of the trip. There are some undeniably iconic (but definitely cursed) photos of this wretched baby.
There’s also a shop along this street that serves traditional mochi called Nakatanidou. It was pretty busy there despite the rest of the street being totally dead, but my friend joined the queue and got one! I don’t think it tasted of much as it was just a plain mochi rice ball, but it’s a good traditional food to try.
Read more about Japan: Our Perfect Two Week Itinerary For A First Time Visit To Japan
Eventually we hit up the park, where we wandered straight along the path we were on until we came to a shrine.
On the way though, was the real highlight of Nara!
Meeting the deer of Nara
You see, Nara is famous for one main thing: their polite deer! The deer in Nara are sacred and so are looked after well and treated with respect.
I was enjoying taking photos of them and saying hello to them, but the real excitement started when we popped into a shop to buy some deer crackers. (These are approved food so do NOT feed them anything else!)
Unsurprisingly, the deer know exactly what this place sells, and exactly what people will be carrying when they leave the kiosk.
Very quickly, we were surrounded!
And then, the ritual. These deer might be demanding, but they have manners. They bow to ask for the cracker, and you bow back because that’s the polite thing to do. Then you hand over the cracker! Nom nom nom.
This was honestly brilliant! One of my favourite things in Japan.
We moved on to find quieter spots where we could just feed one deer (which is where the video is from), rather than the hordes by the shop. And once we were done with the deer, it was time to check out our first Nara shrine.
Kasuga Taisha Shrine
This is a beautiful shrine in the woods, and is exactly what I expected from some of the more rural shrines in Kyoto that I had been hoping to get to. Therefore this was the perfect alternative – and we even saw a wonderful cherry blossom tree outside the entrance to the shrine itself!
There’s a torii gate and then a couple of short paths you can take up to the shrine through the woods. I think we basically did a little loop, and we were virtually on our own on the way up once we diverted off the main path.
There’s quite a bit to see in the complex, as although it looks small when you go into the courtyard, there are four shrines dedicated to kami, or deities. It’s said that one of these kami rode into Nara on a white deer to protect the city, which is why the deer here are so revered.
Here, we left our friends as they decided to pay to go into the shrines (it’s free to enter the courtyard but 500 yen to enter the shrines), and they weren’t too bothered about the Buddhist temple that we were going to head towards.
Read more: A Love Letter To Osaka, Japan: Why It’s Worth More Than A Day Trip
I had hoped before we left that I’d maybe buy an ema with a deer on – one of the wooden plaques used to write prayers. I wanted to collect a few of these on our travels across Japan (unwritten, just as a souvenir), and I thought this one might have a nice one with deer on. Instead, the only ones I saw for sale were shaped like a deer head.
Unfortunately they looked like Christmas decorations!!
From there, there’s a loop round to the other main road in the park, past the shrine museum, which leads back down towards the Buddhist temple.
I’m glad we did it this way around because the area around the temple was SO touristy in comparison to everywhere else we’d seen in Nara so far. Don’t get me wrong, it was still quiet compared to anywhere we’d been in Kyoto, but there was a stark difference when the rest of the park had been reasonably empty.
To go with the crowds, there are a ton of deer.
We had to ignore the ones approaching us as there were too many to possibly feed, though I was pleased to see they were still very polite and not aggressive at all, despite the crowds! This kind of human/animal interaction can make me really uneasy because too many people don’t seem to realise they are wild animals and will treat them like some sort of circus act.
Thankfully we didn’t see any issues with how they were being treated, nor any aggression from the deer. It’s definitely one of the more wholesome interactions I’ve seen with animals!
Read more: Shrines, Temples & Geisha: How To Spend Two Days In Magical Kyoto, Japan
Anyway, the temple, you guys.
Todai-Ji Temple
Most shrines in Japan are Shinto shrines, but there are a few Buddhist ones dotted about as well, and this is one of the most impressive.
For starters, it’s got one of the largest bronze Buddha statues in the world. And I can confirm – it is massive!
The whole temple is just so impressive, including some other statues like Koumokuten, one of the four Heavenly Kings, a guardian of the Buddha’s realm.
Even though it was raining, it still looked amazing with a massive cherry blossom tree outside as well.
It’s 500 yen to enter just the temple, or there’s a joint ticket for the museum for 800 yen as well. We just did the temple.
As you can see, this was much more crowded than the shrine, but I thought it was definitely worth going in.
We re-convened with our friends and ducked into a coffee shop to get out of the rain. To be honest, I’m sure there’s more we could have done in Nara (there are a few museums in the park with artworks going back to the 8th century, for example), but this was a really fun few hours, and it felt like we had covered the highlights – I would highly recommend the two places we visited, at the very least.
It really is easy to do in a day, and we only spent around five hours there so it’s definitely possible to see it on limited time, too.
Getting to Nara
Getting to Nara is easy from both Osaka and Kyoto, as it’s just over half an hour from either city.
We took the JR train to Nara because we had decided to buy a JR-West pass* so it was included. However it involved a change, and the route wasn’t all that exciting, and we decided to take the Kintetsu line back to Osaka. The Kintetsu line station is not only closer to the park (cementing our decision, as it saved the walk back to the JR station in the rain), but also coming back into Osaka we had the most AMAZING view of the city. I’d highly recommend at least taking it one way!
(*The JR rail passes are no longer worth buying after their massive price increase in 2023, but some regional ones might be worth it depending on how much you use it. We decided to buy a JR-West pass because we had quite a few plans in the region it covers, and it saved some hassle. I’m debating whether to write a post about the JR pass, but because we ended up skipping Rabbit Island, and only used it for half of the Nara trip, I’d say it probably wasn’t worth it in the end.)
Had we had a bit more time rather than our late start, one of my aims was to get off at Ikoma station and take a quick ride on the absolutely mental cat & dog railway! This is another plus for taking the Kintetsu line, as Ikoma is one of the stops and the mountain railway leaves just across from the main station.
Seriously – this kind of shit is *exactly* why I’ve always wanted to go to Japan!!
Anyway, Nara is an excellent day trip and as you can see, even if you’re pushed for time then it’s pretty easy to see a lot and you don’t need to go in all guns blazing with a big plan. It’s the perfect place to relax and take things slowly, and even if you do explore a bit more, there are always surprises around every corner – like this shrine, which we passed on the way back to the station.
Overall, I highly recommend visiting Nara if you have time to fit it in on your Japan trip!
Read more about our time in Japan:
⭐ Five Days In The Bright Lights Of Tokyo
⭐ Shrines, Temples & Geisha: How To Spend Two Days In Magical Kyoto, Japan
⭐ A Love Letter To Osaka, Japan: Why It’s Worth More Than A Day Trip
⭐ Making The Most Of Universal Studios & Super Nintendo World In Japan
⭐ An Overnight Trip To Hiroshima, Miyajima & Himeji From Osaka
⭐ My Top 10 Highlights Of Our Trip To Japan
⭐ Our Perfect Two Week Itinerary For A First Time Visit To Japan
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Nara is a very special place. Great photos of the deer.
That temple is amazing and restokes my desire to return to Asia. And I agree – they do look like Christmas decorations!
The temple is very impressive, but those friendly deer are just the best 🙂
What a great experience. Deer look so accustomed to tourists
I think I would be *very* uneasy around those deer. My whole life growing up in a place with so much wildlife, it’s always been “keep your distance” and “don’t feed the animals” so that goes against everything I’ve ever been taught. I love that they bow to you, though, and are so polite. I wonder how that’s been achieved, because most animals get aggressive once they’ve been fed by humans.
there are too many deer in Nara! And when I went – many many years ago now, mind you, I do remember it was over cast the whole time too!
[…] While most of the show is about her ridiculous antics, there are many references to the city of Nara and how deer are held in high regard in that place. It was believed that centuries ago, a priest […]