14 Places To Visit In Nara

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Buddhist Temple (6)
Garden & Park (2)
Historical Site (1)
Temple (1)

1. Nara Park

3 km from city center

Garden & Park

Five hundred hectares of open parkland with around 1,300 wild sika deer moving through it and most of Nara's great temples standing inside its boundary. The deer are genuinely wild and protected as a national monument, not tame. Crackers are 200 yen for ten: hand them over one at a time and quickly, never fan them out or hold them above your head, and show open empty palms when you are done. Injur (Read More)ies happen, mostly during the autumn rut.

Top Attraction

3 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

The Great Buddha Hall holds a 15 metre bronze Buddha cast in 752, and even rebuilt at two thirds of its original width it is one of the largest wooden buildings anywhere. Behind one pillar is a hole the size of the Buddha's nostril that people squeeze through for luck. Admission is now 800 yen, not the 600 still widely quoted, and a combined ticket with the temple museum is 1,200.

Top Attraction

4 km from city center

Temple

The Fujiwara clan shrine, vermilion against dark cedar forest, approached along a path lined with some 2,000 stone lanterns and hung with another thousand in bronze. Watch the clock rather than the price here: the outer grounds are free all day, but the inner area costs 700 yen and closes at 16:00, so arriving late means paying nothing and seeing the least interesting part.

2 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

The Fujiwara family temple, a two minute walk from Kintetsu Nara station, so most visitors meet it first. Its treasure museum holds the Ashura, a three-faced, six-armed eighth century figure that is among the most famous sculptures in Japan. One thing to know before you plan a photograph: the five-storied pagoda is completely wrapped for restoration until March 2034, so the classic reflection in S (Read More)arusawa Pond is not available.

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5. Nigatsu-do Hall

4 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

A hall on the hillside above Todai-ji with a wooden balcony looking out over the whole of Nara. Unlike everything else on this list it is free and never closes, which makes it the one place to be at sunset or after dark. Every March it hosts Omizutori, a fire ceremony unbroken for over 1,260 years, when monks run burning cedar torches along that balcony and scatter sparks over the crowd below.

2 km from city center

Neighborhood

The old merchant quarter south of the park, a grid of narrow lattice-fronted townhouses now holding cafes, craft shops, a sake brewery and a few small free museums. It is the only part of Nara you wander rather than visit, and the natural afternoon counterweight once you have had enough of temples. Look for the red kukurizaru monkey charms hanging outside doorways.

7. Isuien Garden

3 km from city center

Garden & Park

Two gardens joined into one, the front laid out in the 1670s and the rear in 1899, arranged so that Todai-ji's great south gate and the bare slope of Mount Wakakusa become part of the composition. It is the finest classical garden in the city and the best photograph in Nara that does not involve a deer. Closed on Tuesdays, and admission is 1,200 yen.

3 km from city center

Museum

A red brick building of 1889 in the middle of the park, given over entirely to Japanese Buddhist art: statues, ritual bronzes, sutras and painted mandalas. Each autumn it shows treasures from the Shoso-in repository at Todai-ji, objects that arrived along the Silk Road in the eighth century and are otherwise never displayed. That show is a national event and it books out. Closed Mondays.

4 km from city center

Viewpoint

A 350 metre grass hill behind the park, climbed in 20 to 50 minutes for a view over the whole basin with the temple roofs below you. Deer graze the upper slopes. Check the calendar before walking up: it is closed from mid December to the third Saturday of March, which most guides do not mention. On one January evening the entire hillside is deliberately set alight for the Yamayaki.

10 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

Founded in 607 at Ikaruga, about 15 km west, and holding the oldest surviving wooden buildings anywhere in the world. Its pagoda and main hall have stood since the early 700s. It was Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage listing, separate from the Nara inscription, so write it down as near Nara rather than in it. Admission has risen to 2,000 yen, well above the 1,500 most guides print. Allow a half (Read More)day.

3 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

A late seventh century temple laid out in perfect symmetry with twin pagodas flanking the main hall, which is a plan you will not see anywhere else on this list. The East Pagoda is the original, standing since 730, and its staggered roofs create an optical illusion of six storeys where there are three. Admission 1,000 yen. It sits ten minutes' walk from Toshodai-ji, and the two are done together.

2 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

Founded in 759 by Ganjin, a Chinese priest who failed five times to reach Japan, went blind in the attempt and succeeded on the sixth. Its main hall is the benchmark against which Nara-period architecture is measured, and the whole compound is unusually plain and unrestored next to the vermilion of Kasuga. Quieter than anything closer to the park, and 1,000 yen.

1 km from city center

Historical Site

A vast open field west of the centre where the imperial palace stood when Nara was the capital, with the Suzaku Gate and the Former Audience Hall rebuilt at full size on the excavated foundations. It is free, UNESCO-listed and almost empty. Come here if you want to understand why Nara existed at all rather than to look at another temple. Closed Mondays.

36 km from city center

Day Trip

A sacred mountain of Shugendo ascetics an hour and a half south, planted with around 30,000 cherry trees in four groves that rise up the slope and open in sequence over about three weeks. It is the most famous hanami site in Japan and it is worth structuring a trip around, but only in season: the window is roughly early to late April, and outside it the mountain is a quiet temple town.