"Nara - A historical City." a Nara Travel Page by A2002

I would personally recommend Nara, known as the home of Japanese history and culture, as one of the must see places around Kyoto. A day trip is enough to explore the places of interest and enjoy the charm of this ancient city of Nara at a moderate pace.

We obtained a map of Nara from a tourist information booth at the JR Nara station situated at the exit of the station. The main places of interests will be marked on the map. The staff will also recommend a route and we followed the route recommended.

From JR Nara station, we took a pleasant walking tour to see the main sights. We walked pass rows of interesting shops, selling things ranging from food to clothings to souvenirs. We followed the map and walked under the very hot sun (it was late July!). It was quite a tiring walk, so remember to bring lots of water. Our last stop was Kasuga Shrine where we took a bus back to the station.

At the deer park, there will be people selling bisuits-like food to feed the deers. These deers are perhaps used to human encounter, hence they are not afraid of humans at all. Beware! The deers eat anything and follow you if you have something that look "eatable" on your hand! Our yellow coloured map, perhaps looked like a biscuit, half of which ended up in the stomach of a hungry deer!!! A deer just walked to us and the next minute we knew was the deer "snatched" our map in it's mouth!!! We then tried to get the map back but in the process, we only managed to get half of the map back.

Nara Deer Park
Todaiji Temple
Kofukuji Temple
Kasuga Taisha Shrine
Daianji Temple
Fukuchi-in Temple
Yakushiji Temple
Jiganji Temple
Ebisu Shrine

There's a good website with the details of the places of interests of Nara city at http://www.city.nara.nara.jp/english/index.htm

Nara is indeed a very nice place for a day tour. The atmosphere is very different from the well known cities of Kyoto. Before visiting Japan, we did not consider visiting Nara. Since we have some time, after reading the guide books and tourist information booklets, we decided to visit. It was a trip worthwhile. Though we went there on a hot and sunny day with the scorching sun on us, we had an enjoyable time visiting the places of interests.