Nara is just a bit more than one hour away from Kyoto and totally deserves a visit. In case you are short on time, everything I did can be done in pretty much half a day. You can get here my shared Google maps with what to do/see in Nara – the map has the precise location of all great places we visited in Kyoto and Nara.
Shall we start a tour through Nara?
Places to go
Kofukuji
As I said above, we’re originally staying in Kyoto and then decided to take a day trip to Nara. To start we did a short walk to Kofukuji to see the second tallest pagoda in Japan. There is no photo because it was under restoration!
Bummer, can you believe that?
So this post is just a heads up to check things online before going there. 😛
Nara Park
This charming park is right in front of another temple we wanted to visit (see below) and is full of deers! Aw, they are so cute, you can even pet them! If you’re keen to make the deers happy, there are stands selling a special biscuit to feed them.
Curiosly enough, I’ve also seen many tourists trapped in a circle of hungry deers.
So, in case you have kids, watch out for them! Not that the deers would eat them or anything … but 😜
Todaiji
This is one of the most outstanding temples I’ve visited there. You can’t really see how big this place is from the photo below (downsides of a two-dimensional media), it’s unbelievable.
Inside of it you will find a huge Buddha statue that is impressive from every single angle.
Where to it
Sakura Burger
In case you want a break from the Japanese cuisine, this place makes delicious burgers.
By the way, American style burgers!
If that wasn’t exciting enough, they also make their own bacon!!! We had a beef burger, with homemade bacon, avocado, cheese, salad, and chips.
They are located a stone’s throw away from the train station, so you can stop there either on your way back or to Nara Park.
Specific location: https://goo.gl/maps/Lp4US4mrac92
There are so many things to do in Japan, we simply loved the country and their culture.
Here is everything I’ve published about our trip to Japan.