Nara is one of the most beautiful and unique cities in the world. This is mostly down to its major tourist attraction – deer park where these animals freely approach humans for food.
However, there’s much more to Nara than just deers: Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Shrine, and Nara National Museum. You can follow this guide or join a tour of Nara.
Deer Park
That’s probably the most memorable part of the Nara experience, feeding and running away from deer. They are generally neutral to your presence. Until you buy snacks designed just for them (there are sellers everywhere, and the snacks are inexpensive). Once you purchase a portion of their waffles, the get pretty crazy. In no time you’re surrounded by deer who lightly bite your clothes to draw attention and get some food. Males are the exception though, they may actually fight you to get what they want, nothing dangerous, but scary.
Tōdai-ji
Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex and it’s listed as part of UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara”. The Great Buddha Hall houses the largest bronze Buddha in the world, and until recently it was the biggest wooden building in the world (precisely, until 1998).
Surrounding buildings also have a number of monumental sculptures.
Kōfuku-ji
Another Buddhist temple, Kōfuku-ji, currently consists of only 6 buildings, but was more than twice bigger in the past. The most recognizable part of this temple complex is the five-storied pagoda, Sanjū-no-tō.
Kasuga Grand Shrine
Although located near the Deer Park, Kasuga Shrine, is hidden from the plain view by the forest and probably would have been hard to find if not for the stone lanterns that lead to it. It has been listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its beauty, religious and historical value.
Nara National Museum
Nara National Museum is one of the most important in Japan and features works of art, mainly related to Buddhism. It’s worth a visit if you’re interested in the topic.
Have you been to Nara? What did you enjoy the most?
23 thoughts on “What Nara Offers”
Nara looks like a place we’d love to visit. A UNESCO site with lots of natural and man made beauty plus those gorgeous deer. BTW I love that deer hat you have Agness.
Deer in Nara are super funny! I remember one bumped into a girl with extra short mini skirt :D
Indeed!
i visited in the rain but still it was a great day. Soooooooooo many deer!
That’s true!
The deer! I’ve always lived in areas with large deer populations but they never get close to humans. Nara sounds like the place to go, I want to feed deer! Reminds me of Bambi. Thanks for the tip, I never would have known about this city without you.
Really? Nice!
I hadn’t even heard of Nara before reading your post but it seems like a really interesting place! Plus, deer parks are so much fun!
Van, it’s a beautiful place, definitely worth checking out.
I haven’t expected that in Japan :)
Maybe next time!!
Have never heard of Nara before until now..it looks like a very beautiful city. Thanks for sharing, Agness.
You should definitely add it to your list!
I agree completely! Much more to Nara than the deer (though they are cute, I do admit). I don’t remember visiting Kofuku-Ji, but I remember the large wooden temple as being quite impressive. I had no idea that it was no longer the largest wooden structure in the world…
Yes, definitely!
Oh wow those deers look so cute! Would love to visit there one day!
They do, right? :)
Thanks for sharing. Nara is on my radar list when I visit Japan in November. Will do a write up on my experience after my visit :-)
I’m glad to hear that!
I had never heard of Nara before this! It looks lovely – thank you for sharing it with us :)
Now you know! :)
Hey agness i love this post amazing experience!!
This reminds me of my exchange year in Japan <3 How I miss that time! Nara was great, the deer are so cute. But I can't complain about being in Bangkok either ;)