Feeding deer in Nara, Japan

Nara was our next destination as a 1-day trip from Osaka. This little gem is located 30km away from Osaka. It is easily accessible by train and covered by our Japan Rail Pass. The travelling time was around 40-45 minutes from Osaka Station. Let me show you what is so unique in this city!

Public transport in Nara

After the short journey from Osaka, you can choose whether you take the sightseeing bus to the top sights or walk to there. Because of the time constraint, we took the bus to the park, but the main sights are not far away on foot (20-25 minutes-walk from the train station). The one-way bus ticket was around 300 yen. You should consider that there could be traffic jams, so the bus can be quite slow sometimes, therefore we have decided to walk back to the train station in the afternoon.

Main attractions in Nara

1. Feeding deer in Nara Park

Nara was the capital of Japan between 710 to 794 AD. One of the main sights is the Nara Park, which was very astonishing. It is in the city central, and you can find basically all the main sights (e.g. Todaji Temple) around it, so it is easy to reach them by foot.

Nara is one of the major tourist attractions in Japan nowadays mainly because of its unique atmosphere and special ‘citizens’. You will understand what I mean very quickly after your arrival.

Deer, deer everywhere! There are around 1200 ‘wild’ deer, who are living freely in Nara Park and wandering around the town’s centre. It is pretty impressive and interesting.

The deer are wild, so it is not allowed to pet or feed them with you own food, but the locals sell deer-friendly snacks. It was a must-try, so we bought some and feed the deer. You should be careful though. There deer have their own tactics. They are waiting near to the snacks sellers and as they see the snack in your hands they go to crazy. They are standing around you, nudging and even biting to get the food. It was crazy and funny at the same time!

Deer snacks

We were spending many hours in the park to feed the deer and enjoying the warm, spring weather.

2. Todaiji Temple

We have also visited Todaiji Temple, what is one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Japan and Nara's most famous actual sight as well. If you have only 1 day in Nara, don't miss this place!

This wooden temple was built in 752 and it is one of the most important locations for a certain type of Buddhism originated from Nara. Unfortunately, the main hall burned down many times in the past, but it was always rebuilt. Its main attraction, the largest bronze statues of Buddha survived the fires. This monumental statue is standing in the main hall. The highest point of the statue is 15 meters far away from the ground. Besides this statue, you can find 4 others in the temple. According to the myth, these figures are the guardians of Buddha. All the statues were very detailed and beautiful.

Ticket price: 600 yen (5 EUR)

Opening hours: 7:30 to 17:30 (April to October), 8:00 to 17:00 (November to March)

This temple was a great experience for us. You should visit while wandering around in Nara.

We have spent almost a full day in Nara, but this place has much more to offer. There are many temples and sights which seems also quite interesting, but we haven’t had time for them. Maybe next time.

Next up: Kyoto