Nara is easily accessible by car and is connected to motorways that link to Nagoya and Osaka.
Nara also has two mainline railway stations, the Nara JR station serves Nagoya and Japan and this is the station you will use if you are travelling on a Japan rail pass. The other mainline station serves the Kintetsu line and connects to local services in Mie.
There is an excellent Tourist information centre in the Café Etranger right in the centre of Nara, close to Naramachi.
I can recommend the Onyado Nono hotel for real Japanese experience that won’t break the bank.
There are lots fabulous restaurants in Nara, you can about my experiences in A Night out in Nara.
Just a few kilometres from the centre of Nara is the Horyu-ji temple complex which dates back to the 7th Century AD. Horyu-ji is a UNESCO world heritage site and well worth a visit if you are in Nara.
The site contains a collection of wooden structures that typify Japanese Buddhist architecture and are situated in perfectly manicured grounds.
They are only half an hour drive in the car or you can take a train from the Kintetsu station to Horyu-ji station or take the 97 bus from Nara JR station. It is a very popular tourist spot and will be busy at the weekends. We went on a Monday morning and pretty much had the place to ourselves.
I really enjoyed wandering around the site looking at the beautiful temple buildings and grounds. Entrance to main site was about ¥1000 and we paid another ¥1000 to visit Ikaruga Gosho temple, which houses a rare sitting Bodhisattva with one leg pendant and is said to be one of three smiling masterpieces of the modern world, the other two being the Sphinx of Egypt and the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
As it was lunchtime when we left the site we decided to try a local café, called Zadan. It looked very humble from the outside and I feared it may not be much good. However, it turned out to be a lovely place for lunch.
The entrance foyer had some art and crafts on sale and the restaurant itself had homely feel about it. It was run by a young couple and if it was in London, you would say it was a hipster business, but without the inflated prices!
The menu was not extensive, but it was good value, with most meals costing around ¥1000. I had the curry and rice which came with a salad and a small mug of soup. It was very good and we enjoyed a long lazy lunch recovering from our walking around the temples in the heat of the day.
If you visit Nara and have time for a little detour, the temple site of Horyu-ji is a rewarding place to visit. Go see the smiling masterpiece that is on a par with the Mona Lisa and Sphinx, it really is an excellent day out.
Cost approximately £75 a night for a double room. Breakfast was an additional ¥1800 per person.
When we visited Nara we stayed for 2 nights at the Hotel Onyado Nono which is a Spa Hotel. This means the hotel has Onsen facilities available to guests.
The Onsen at Onyado Nono was fabulous, beautifully designed with both indoor and outdoor baths as wells as a sauna and a cold pool. I think we managed to use the Onsen at least 4 times over the course of the 2 days, including on the morning we were leaving a visit at 07:00 and I have to say despite the early hour, an Onsen is definitely one of the best ways start your day.
There are a few rules you need to be aware of when using an Onsen for the first time.
Rule 1 – you must always wash yourself in the wash area thoroughly before getting in the bath or sauna. The Onsen always provides body wash, shampoo and conditioner as well as disposable razors and shaving cream. At a hotel Onsen they will provide you with a wash cloth, which is a little bit smaller than a hand towel but larger than a flannel, you should use this wash cloth in the wash area only and must never take it in the baths. You will see Japanese people carrying their wash cloths around with them as they go from bath to bath, sometimes they will put it on their head, but they never put it in the bath.
Rule 2 – You are not allowed to wear any clothes, including swim wear, in the Onsen. To break this rule is a major faux-pas, because clothes are considered dirty or soiled and not to be worn in the bath. You may feel a little self conscious at first but you’ll soon get used to it and it is acceptable to use your wash cloth to cover yourself when walking around the Onsen or when lounging.
Rule 3 – Absolutely no tattoos are allowed, if you have small tattoos you may get away with covering them up. But if you have large tattoos you will not be permitted entry.
The Onyado Nono provided us with Onsen baskets in our room, in these were our wash cloths. The hotel also provide a Jinbei for all guests to wear, these are similar to Kimonos but have trousers. Most guests will wear the Jinbei whenever they are in the hotel.
The hotel rooms were traditional Japanese style with a lot of wood and a low level bed.
Japanese hotels always provide you with toothbrushes, razors, combs and shower caps. One of the great things about visiting a Japanese hotel is that you don’t have to pack these things.
There were tatami style mats as flooring throughout the hotel and the décor was traditional Japanese.
The buffet breakfast was amazing, offering traditional Japanese style with Miso soup, grilled fish, rice, tofu, pickles and salad. While also offering Western cooked breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast and coffee. We really enjoyed the breakfasts at Onyado Nono.
The hotel had an ingenious way of parking cars using an elevator system.
We really enjoyed our stay at Onyado Nono, it was stylish, comfortable with a lovely Onsen and delicious breakfasts.
In August 2019 we took a trip to the city of Nara, which was once the ancient capital of Japan. Nara is where Buddhism took root in Japan. In the 5th century AD, there was a shipping route between China and Japan and at the time this was considered to be the end of the Silk Road. Buddhism entered Japan through this route and Prince Shotokutaishi created the first written constitution of Japan based on the teachings Buddha. Shotokutaishi started building a temple in Nara and although he didn’t live to see it completed, his son did and in so doing established Nara as a centre for Buddhist learning.
All the temple buildings are wooden constructs and of course, over the years, some of the buildings have been destroyed by fire, however many of the original buildings remain and there are some incredible ancient Buddhist treasures to see in Nara.
The main campus of temples are in and around the Park in the centre of Nara and very easy to find. If you are driving like we were, just follow the signs to Kohfukuji Temple. We arrived mid afternoon on a Saturday and found a parking space close to the main site without too much bother. If you are travelling by train, it is well signed from either the JR station or the Kintetsu Line Station and is only a short walk from either.
We visited the Kohfukuji National Treasure Hall, it cost ¥700 per adult for entry and this also included entry to 2 other temples in the park.
The following day we visited the Todaiji temple which cost about ¥1000 to enter and houses a big Buddha.
To get to the Todaiji temple you have to walk through the Park and in the park there many wild deer who roam free and are happy to mingle with the tourists and visitors. The deer are incredibly tame and you can buy special biscuits to feed to them. They cost ¥100 per pack and are on sale throughout the park.
The day we went to the park was very hot and we found some deer sat under the cover of stall and trying to cool off under a water spray.
On the approach to the Todaiji temple there are gates guarded by demons.
The Todaiji temple is impressive from a distance and is one of the few temples that you are permitted to take photos once you are inside.
Just before the main entrance there is a small sheltered area with water to drink and for a wash. It was a really hot day so the drink was welcome, but as mark of respect it’s a good idea to wash your hands and face before you enter the temple.
The temples are all floodlit at night and make an evening stroll around the city quite delightful.
