The Best Things to Do in Nara, Japan16 min read

Kyoto gets the postcards, Osaka gets the food crowds, and Nara, Japan’s first permanent capital, home to ancient temples and one of the world’s largest bronze Buddha statues, gets a rushed half day squeezed in between. That’s backwards. Nara is small enough to see in a day and good enough to deserve all of it. The best things to do in Nara sit in one compact, walkable zone: a shopping arcade, temple complexes, a garden, a hillside shrine, and more than a thousand deer with total right of way.

How to Get to and Around Nara

From Kyoto, take the Kintetsu Line to Kintetsu-Nara Station, about 45 to 55 minutes on the ordinary express. The station is a five-minute walk from Nara Park. The JR Nara Line takes about the same time, but JR Nara Station is roughly 15 minutes farther out. If you have a Japan Rail Pass, take the JR line. Otherwise, take Kintetsu.

Want to skip the ticket machines? You can book a Kyoto to Nara Limited Express ticket in advance. From Osaka, Kintetsu runs direct from Namba, and you can book that Limited Express ticket too. With a JR Pass, the JR Yamatoji Line also runs from Osaka to Nara.

Combining Nara with other Kintetsu trips? The Kintetsu Rail Pass covers unlimited rides, though not the Limited Express fare, and it’s for foreign visitors only.

Prefer a guide? This early-morning small-group tour leaves from Kyoto, Osaka, or Nara and covers Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Taisha, Nara Park, and Tōdai-ji, finishing before noon. The train to Nara is included, but Tōdai-ji admission and your trip back are not. If you’d rather have a bus ride and entrance fees included, this afternoon tour is the larger-group alternative.

Higashimuki Shopping Street, Fuel Up First

If you arrive by Kintetsu, you exit Kintetsu-Nara Station and step almost straight into Higashimuki, a covered arcade that has been feeding pilgrims and day-trippers for generations. Don’t linger yet, since you’ll walk it again on the way back. Grab breakfast and coffee now, because the next stretch is quiet temple territory with very few places to stop for food or drinks. The sweets and tea shops are worth a slow look later, but the caffeine is worth grabbing now.

Arriving on the JR line? You’ll start about a 15-minute walk west of Kintetsu-Nara Station. Follow Sanjo-dori east toward Nara Park, and the shopping streets along the way, including Higashimuki, will bring you to the same starting point. If you’d rather save your legs, a Nara Kotsu city loop bus runs between JR Nara and Kintetsu-Nara in just a few minutes. Most major IC cards work on Nara Kotsu buses, but carrying some cash is a good backup. Either way, pick up breakfast and coffee along the route instead of rushing to the park. On the way back, the same streets lead you to JR Nara Station, so you won’t need to change the loop.

Kōfuku-ji, the Golden Halls and the 1,300-Year-Old Sculpture

Kōfuku-ji sits about a five-minute walk east of Kintetsu-Nara Station, and its five-story pagoda, rebuilt in 1426, stands about 164 feet (50 meters) tall, the second tallest wooden pagoda in Japan after the one at Tō-ji in Kyoto. It’s currently wrapped for its first major restoration in about 120 years, so you can’t see it from outside, with the work expected to finish around 2034.

The temple was founded in what is now Kyoto to pray for Fujiwara no Kamatari’s recovery from illness. It moved to its present site in 710, when the capital moved to Nara, and became the temple of the powerful Fujiwara family. A fire in 1717 destroyed most of the complex, so many of the buildings you see today are reconstructions. It’s also one of the closest major sights to the station, which makes it a natural first stop among the things to do in Nara.

The grounds are free and open around the clock, but the two golden halls are worth the small fee: the Central Golden Hall, rebuilt in 2018, and the Eastern Golden Hall, rebuilt in 1415, with its large Yakushi (Healing) Buddha. The temple’s greatest treasure is the Ashura, a three-faced, six-armed statue from the eighth century and one of Japan’s most beloved Buddhist sculptures, displayed in the temple’s treasure hall.

Yoshikien Garden, Free With Your Passport

A short walk east of Kōfuku-ji, between the temple and Tōdai-ji, Yoshikien Garden is three gardens in one: a pond garden, a moss garden, and a tea ceremony garden. Here’s the part nobody believes until they do it: foreign visitors get in free by showing a passport. Bring the original, since a photo or photocopy may not be accepted. Japanese visitors pay a small fee, but you just show your passport and walk into one of the most peaceful corners of central Nara. Of all the things to do in Nara, this may be the best value.

Plan on 30 to 45 minutes. You’ll want the pause, because the next stretch of the route is chaos of the four-legged kind.

If you’d like a second garden, Isuien sits right next door, across a small stream. It’s a larger, more formal strolling garden with its own museum of ancient Chinese and Korean art, and it charges admission. Note that Isuien closes on Tuesdays, so on a Tuesday, Yoshikien is the one to visit.

Nara Park, Where the Deer Run This Town

And then, the deer. Well over a thousand of them, protected as a natural monument and revered for centuries as messengers of the gods, roaming the lawns, the temple paths, and sometimes the road. They bow with a straight-faced conviction that is undeniably cute, but it’s also a little unsettling, because the bow is a learned behavior: they’ve figured out that bowing gets them crackers. Watching them is one of the most memorable things to do in Nara, though it makes you wonder whether these are still wild animals or ones we’ve taught to depend on us.

We’d rather you didn’t feed them. In the busiest areas, the deer now bow, nudge, and chase anything that might be edible, including paper, bags, and the map in your hand. If you do buy shika senbei, the special deer crackers sold by park vendors, feed only those, never human food, and show both empty hands when the stack is gone. Keep plastic bags zipped away, since swallowing them can seriously harm the deer. From September through November, bucks in rutting season get territorial, so give them space.

Tōdai-ji and the Great Buddha

Follow the deer north and you’ll feel Tōdai-ji before you see it. First comes the Great South Gate, where two wooden Nio guardians stand about 28 feet (8.4 meters) tall, one with its mouth open and one closed, carved in 1203 by Unkei, Kaikei, and their teams in just over two months. Beyond it stands the Daibutsuden, one of the largest wooden buildings in the world and the third hall on this site. Fires destroyed the first two, in 1180 and 1567, and the current hall, completed in 1709, is only about two-thirds the size of the original. Inside sits the Great Buddha, a bronze Vairocana about 49 feet (15 meters) tall, dedicated in 752 and repaired several times since.

Give the hall an hour, because it’s one of the most memorable things to do in Nara. Look for the full-scale replica of the Buddha’s lotus pedestal, whose hairline engravings depict the “Lotus-Matrix World” of the Kegon Sutra, then find the pillar behind the Buddha with a hole through its base, said to match the Buddha’s nostril. Legend promises enlightenment in your next life if you squeeze through. Kids slide through easily, and adults find out. Go early for the best light and thinner crowds.

Nara’s Museums, Tōdai-ji Museum and Nara National Museum

Nara holds some of Japan’s finest Buddhist art, and its museums are a good answer to rainy-day things to do in Nara. Two museums are worth knowing about.

The Tōdai-ji Museum, opened in 2011 next to the Great South Gate, was the first facility to display the temple’s treasures comprehensively, with rotating Nara-period Buddhist art. It opens at 9:30 a.m., a combination ticket covers it with the Daibutsuden, and 30 to 45 minutes is enough. Exhibits rotate, so check ahead if you want a specific piece.

The Nara National Museum, opened in 1895 as Japan’s second-oldest national museum, sits in Nara Park near Kōfuku-ji. Its Meiji-era Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall displays close to 100 Buddhist sculptures from the Asuka to Kamakura periods.

Which museum, and when? On a one-day visit, add the Tōdai-ji Museum only if you have 30 to 45 minutes to spare after the Great Buddha. Save the Nara National Museum for a rainy day, a second day in Nara, or if Buddhist sculpture is your main interest. Allow about 90 minutes there, longer for special exhibitions.

Kasuga Taisha and Its Three Thousand Lanterns

From Tōdai-ji, continue east through Nara Park toward the hills, and the forest changes. Hunting and logging in the Kasugayama Primeval Forest have been banned since 841, and the approach to Kasuga Taisha runs along its edge, lined with mossy stone lanterns donated over the centuries by nobles, samurai, and ordinary worshippers. In all, the shrine has about 3,000 lanterns: roughly 2,000 stone ones along the approach and about 1,000 bronze ones hanging from the shrine’s corridors. It’s one of the most atmospheric walks among the things to do in Nara, and it costs nothing.

The shrine itself is vermilion and white, founded in 768 as the Fujiwara family shrine and the head of some 3,000 Kasuga shrines across Japan. The grounds are free, while a small fee takes you into the area in front of the main sanctuary, where the bronze lanterns hang up close. If your timing is lucky, the Mantoro festivals on February 3 and August 14 and 15 light every lantern at dusk, and the whole approach glows.

Naramachi and Mochi at Champion Speed

Naramachi is Nara’s old merchant quarter, where lattice-fronted wooden townhouses and tiny shops stand on the former grounds of Gangō-ji temple. Wandering it is one of the most relaxed things to do in Nara.

On the way back to the station, where Higashimuki Shopping Street meets Sanjo-dori, stop at Nakatanidō, one of the most entertaining snack stops in Japan and a former national high-speed mochi-pounding champion. It specializes in yomogi mochi, chewy mugwort mochi filled with sweet red bean paste and dusted with roasted soybean flour, pounded by hand at astonishing speed. There’s no set schedule, so you may wait or walk straight into a batch. Bring cash, since cards aren’t accepted. In the shops around the arcade, look for kakinoha-zushi, pressed sushi from the Yoshino region wrapped in persimmon leaves, and unwrap the leaf before eating.

One Day in Nara: The Route at a Glance

The best things to do in Nara follow one loop, with no retracing.

1. Higashimuki Shopping Street: breakfast and coffee.
2. Kōfuku-ji: the free grounds and the two golden halls.
3. Nara National Museum: optional, closed Mondays.
4. Yoshikien Garden: free with your passport.
5. Nara Park: walk through the deer toward Tōdai-ji.
6. Tōdai-ji: the Great Buddha Hall.
7. Tōdai-ji Museum: next to the Great South Gate, if you have time.
8. Kasuga Taisha: continue east into the forest and the lantern-lined approach.
9. Naramachi and Nakatanidō: wander the old merchant quarter, then take the arcade back to the station.

If you’d rather beat the crowds at Tōdai-ji, grab a coffee on Higashimuki and walk straight to the Great Buddha Hall for opening, add the Tōdai-ji Museum if you like, then return to Kōfuku-ji and follow the route from step 2, skipping the Tōdai-ji stops when you reach them. You’ll cover one stretch twice, but you’ll meet the Great Buddha before the tour buses.

Final Thoughts

Nara is small the way a perfectly cut stone is small. Japan’s first permanent capital, the Great Buddha, the great temples and shrines, and ceremonies still held after hundreds of years all sit within a short walk of each other. The best things to do in Nara fit into one unhurried day and reward it with thirteen centuries of Japanese history, plus a deer eating your map. One loop, no backtracking, and a mochi show if the day is kind. Pair it with a couple of days in Kyoto and you have the old heart of Japan sorted: ancient, serene, and slightly nibbled.