On our spring trip to Japan, we stayed in Tokyo, the Mt. Fuji region, and Kyoto, and while in Kyoto we had a day trip to Nara!
We didn’t exactly spend a full 24 hours there, but we did have a great day exploring the city before returning to Kyoto that night.
We were excited to see more blossoms, temples, and of course experience the main attraction: feeding the free-roaming deer at Nara Park!
Since we were there as part of a group tour, our transportation to and from Nara was already included and we used our bus both ways. We did have some other friends who visited Japan a month before us and they were able to figure out how to get to Nara from Kyoto on their own. So, it makes for a fun and easy day trip!
Todaiji Temple
Our day did start with a visit to the Buddhist Todaiji Temple where we saw the giant Buddhas and spotted some gorgeous cherry blossom trees.
The temple dates back to 752 (no, I’m not missing a 1 before that 7!) Unfortunately, the temple that is there today is a reconstruction (built in 1692) and is only two-thirds of the original size! Which is crazy as this building and the Buddhas inside it are huge!
In fact, the bronze Buddha inside sits almost 50 ft. tall. The temple did hold the record for the world’s largest wooden building at one time. The temple was beautiful and there was plenty to look at, including other statues and figures as well as models of what the temple grounds used to look like over the years.
Nara Park
Next up was the highlight of the trip: feeding the deer!
I think it was like ¥200 for a stack of rice crackers to feed the deer and they know when you have them! One tried taking a bite out of Rick’s shorts, my blazer was nibbled on and you basically have to show your palms to let them know you’re out.
But they are so cute when they come up and bow to you to get fed. We had a blast feeding the deer and taking a bazillion pictures of them — as if we don’t have deer here in America, but these ones were cuter and much more polite.
Lunch
We then had an included lunch that day complete with rice, tempura shrimp, salad, tofu, and a dessert. It was a nice light lunch but full of flavor.
Konishi Sakura-dori Shopping Street
After lunch, we had some free time in the city and were dropped off at a shopping mall, the Konishi Sakura-dori Shopping Street. It had all sorts of shops and arcades if we wanted to get any more toys or goodies from vending machines or stock up on crazy KitKat flavors, but Rick and I went and explored and came across a cool temple before buying some snacks we’d seen on Somebody Feed Phil.
Had we had more time we probably would have picked up a few more snacks or checked out one of the bars and had some Japanese beer, sake, or cocktails, but were on a timeline.
Word the wise, there are public bathrooms below where you can also access the trains, but the line was insane! We had to run to catch our bus. Plan accordingly!
Have you visited Nara? Did we miss something that we need to go back and do? Or, what other day trips from Kyoto would you recommend? Sound off in the comments!
