What Nara Offers

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.

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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.

Deers in 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.

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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).

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Surrounding buildings also have a number of monumental sculptures.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Have you been to Nara? What did you enjoy the most?

See also  Shinjuku Travel Guide

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Agness Walewinder
Agness Walewinder
Travel freak, vagabond, photography passionate, blogger, life enthusiast, backpacker, adventure hunter and endless energy couchsurfer living by the rule "Pack lite, travel far and live long!"
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23 thoughts on “What Nara Offers”

  1. Avatar of Katarina

    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.

  2. Avatar of Erika @ Erika's Travels

    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…

  3. Avatar of Sacha - Beautiful Travel Hangover
    Sacha - Beautiful Travel Hangover

    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 ;)

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