I had to choose between a day trip to Nara (aka the deer town), a day trip to Osaka, or an extra day of temple/ shrine-hopping in Kyoto. NARA WON. I was super happy I went — yes, for the novelty of the deer, but also surprisingly, for the temples. They were insanely impressive!

Nara is a quick ~45 minute train ride from Kyoto and you can use your Pasmo/ Suica card on a regional train to reach it. There are some quick rides and some longer rides, so definitely plan your travel on Google Maps in advance to ensure you’re not stuck on a 2 hour train journey.

I got a late start so had only about 4 hours to explore Nara. I would have preferred more time there but 4 hours was good enough and I still felt like it was worth the journey. Everything was super spaced out, so it never really felt crowded (except at Todai-ji, the Buddhist temple). Definitely worth a day trip from Kyoto if you’re into weird animal encounters like me.

I explored Nara in a counter-clockwise direction, starting with the Kofuku-ji Chukondo Temple. 500 yen entrance for this temple. Cool to see the Buddha inside (no pictures allowed), but if you’re on a budget, skip this, and go check out the INSANELY large Buddha at Todai-ji. Afterwards, I wandered over to Sarusawa-ike Pond and then headed towards Ukimido, a gazebo on a lil pond with a bridge. These were both cute, but there weren’t many deer, so I decided to make better use of my time and head into the park for the main event — THE DEER. There are a bunch of cool things to do in Nara but hanging out with deer is definitely the main attraction.

There were deer pretty much everywhere. You can buy deer biscuits to feed to the deer for 150 YEN but a nice passerby gave me a couple to give away, so I ended up not buying any. It was fun, but TBH it was a bit stressful having the food since the deer can be a lil aggressive. I was happy to feed them just a few biscuits and then just observe.

Some deer interaction best practices (weirdest phrase I’ve ever written):

• To indicate you don’t have any food, hold up both of your hands to show them that they’re empty.

• Bow to the deer and they will bow back to you! It’s hilarious.

• Don’t engage with the deer who have horns.

• Deer are wild animals so don’t be stupid.

After the deer party, I wandered towards Kasuga Taisha, the Shinto shrine. The shrine was cool, but the walk to the shrine was really the highlight for me. It was through the forest and there were stone lanterns and deer everywhere (pictured at top of page). By far one of the highlights of my Nara visit was Todai-ji, the Buddhist temple, where I went afterwards. It’s one of those places where you just have to see it to believe it. It was magnificent, massive, and just so insanely impressive. I was in awe. Pictures just cannot do it justice. The Nara Daibutsu or “Great Buddha of Nara” is 15 meters tall and just SO MASSIVE. I pieced together my Nara itinerary relatively quickly and didn’t really know what to expect, so this was an absolute surprise and treat. By far my favorite temple I visited in Japan.

I finished the afternoon with a lil stroll at Yoshikien Garden which had free admission and was quiet and cute. The return journey to Kyoto was quick and uneventful, with the exception of the STUNNING Yves Klein blue on the seats! Amtrak could never.

See my Kyoto post for more things to do in Kyoto - just a 45 minute train ride away from Nara!