The rain in Kyoto completely stopped and trains started running again, so we decided to do a trip to Nara as our JR passes were still valid for a day. Nara is a 45-minute train ride from Kyoto Station with JR, but you can also get there by Kintetsu Railways, which will get you closer to Nara Park if you want to start your trip there. The park is otherwise served well by buses going there from the JR station. Local ones are much cheaper than the Nara circular line, which has a fixed rate of 250 yen.
You can see temples from the bus already, but they somehow fail in comparison to the hundreds of deer walking around freely everywhere. So, of course, we had to see and possibly pet the deer first. You can buy deer crackers everywhere for 150 yen.
We moved away from the entrance and further into the park to have a few deer to ourselves – it showed that it was raining the previous days, as the crowd was huge. But most of the people just come for a pic or two and they don’t feel like walking around too much, so the inner park is pretty quiet.
Deer are cute and hungry – they will know that you are hiding a cracker and will try to find it. ๐ There are some gestures you can use to make them go away if you’ve had enough of cuteness chasing you. They also know how to bow, which is a cherry on top of cuteness overload. After we distributed most of the crackers and walked around the beautiful Nara Park it was time to see the big bronze Buddha statue in Todaiji Temple. The admission fee is 600 yen and it is well worth it. The Buddha is impressive, as well as the temple surrounding it. Todaiji’s main hall is the world’s largest wooden building – but still not as huge as it was when it was first built. It was rebuilt a few times and you can see the previous versions – there are models inside the main building.
If you are skinny & small enough and you’re feeling like you want to be enlightened in the next life, you can try squeezing through the hole supposedly the size of Buddha’s nostril in the base of one of the temple’s pillars. I was feeling shy about it, and am now sorry for that of course, so I hope I am skinny enough when I am in Nara the next time.
It was crazy hot outside and we wanted some shade, so we walked past the botanical garden to the famous Kasuga Taisha shrine, which is in the forest.ย But there are tons of shrines and temples you can check out in Nara if you have the energy. We soon had enough and were sweating like crazy, so we caught the next bus to Naramachi – the former merchant district of Nara for a quick stroll before heading back to Kyoto. The heath and humidity were unbelievable.
We checked back into the Kyoto Piece Hostel and it felt like coming back home. ๐ We skipped dinner and had some riceball snacks, which are saving us constantly. Walking around in heat is making us tired af, but we are making an impressive number of kilometers per day, so beach body will be awesome.
I am definitely coming back to Nara someday. Tha park has to look amazing when everything is blooming or when autumn colors the leaves red.