OVERVIEW
During our five-day stay in Kyoto we were using it as a home base from which to see some of the other nearby cities, like Osaka and Nara. Kyoto , Osaka, and Nara essentially form a triangle and are about forty miles apart from one another. Initially we were going to visit Osaka first, but as we stood waiting for the train we were informed over the public address system that a car had collided with a train somewhere down the line to Osaka and there was going to be a major delay. So, we quickly changed our plans and decided to go to Nara instead.
Nara was home to the first imperial capital of Japan between 710 AD – 794 AD, contains some of the countries most revered shrines and temples, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To this day, the Imperial Family summers in Nara each year.
On our way to Nara we were informed by several people on the almost empty train that it was really just a “village” with nothing to do there except feed the 🦌 deer. But with a population of 360,000 it’s still a pretty big city — the only city in Maryland bigger than Nara would be Baltimore — and our spirits were high as we rolled through the mostly rural countryside south of Kyoto.
HOW TO GET THERE
Catch the JR Local Rapid Train — thus avoiding lots of stops along the way — and you will arrive in Nara in about forty minutes.
The Nara Train Station, a pseudo-pagoda style building, is located right in the heart of the city. Cross a busy boulevard in front of the station and then walk up Sanjo Dori, Nara’s Main Street. Sanjo Dori is limited to pedestrian, bikes, and delivery vehicles — no cars. Hear that, Annapolis? The lovely pedestrian promenade was filled with shops, restaurants, homes, small shrines, government buildings, and offices. It’s a vibrant hub that attracts visitors and locals like a magnet.
WHERE TO STAY
The Nara Hotel is one of Japan’s most historic hotels, dating back to 1909. It sits on a willow-covered hill, framed by a teardrop lake overlooking Nara. It’s guest list is a pantheon of the rich and famous, starting with the nobility of virtually every nation on earth and including, Charles Lindbergh, Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, Yul Brynner, Glen Ford, Richard Nixon, Helen Keller, Bobby Kennedy, Pope Paul VI, Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, and Albert Einstein. The place is not fancy but exudes a gracious, slightly threadbare elegance that smells like 1936. It is undoubtedly a must see attraction, and if you are staying overnight, it’s by far your best bet. Just make sure you book a room in the old hotel. They have built a modern annex that is nice but it has no history or timeless style like the old part of the hotel.
WHERE TO EAT
There is an open-air shopping arcade about three quarters of the way up Sanjo Dori on the right. Walk a few hundred feet under the mosaic glass roof, past tiny shops of eclectic variety and look for an alleyway on the left. When we visited, there was a smiling young lady holding a sleepy snowy owl at some sort of weird “zoo” right across from the alley. When I tried to give her money for snapping her photo she looked perplexed. Take a left up the narrow lane and there’s a tiny wine bar reminiscent of Italy that serves an excellent selection of wine, scotch, and appetizers at a very reasonable price. They have a few outside tables that are perfect for people watching. It’s like a little slice of Europe in the middle of Japan.
After visiting the shrines, round out your day by having high tea in the Tea Lounge of the Nara Hotel where you will find a piano that Albert Einstein used to play when staying at the hotel.
The dining room is a little musty and outdated, so I would head back downtown for dinner. There are a myriad of choices.
BEST THINGS TO DO
Nara seemed like Williamsburg, Virginia to me — a toy town with magnificent shrines and the world’s biggest petting zoo.
Nara is essentially a big urban park filled with shrines, tame deer, trippy Buddhist monks, and hordes of cute little schoolchildren who resemble dolls. “He-llo!” is their friendly call. Nara definitely has a dreamy, park-like vibe.
But in the end, Nara is all about the deer. They are smaller than your normal deer, have white, heart-shaped asses and bobbing little tails, and and most of them have had their antlers sawed down for safety. And they are everywhere! They roam the entire city center in endless packs. They lounge under trees, on sidewalks, and in doorways. They stop in the middle of the streets. They walk into restaurants and shops, looking for a handout. And they are not shy. In fact, they sometimes almost attack you, begging for food.
There are carts and small kiosks scattered throughout the park, selling special deer crackers (shika senbei) in plastic-wrap packets for about 10 for 150 yen. When the deer see you carrying some crackers they literally swarm around you like pigeons with horns.
It takes an army of street cleaners to sweep up the perpetual production of deer waste. I’ve always looked at deer as being rats with antlers, so I was not enchanted with the Nara deer herd like the multitude of tourists who fawned over the hungry critters. Inna was initially quite excited when they came right up to her and allowed themselves to be petted as they stuck their noses into her jacket pockets in search of a snack. But the novelty rubbed off pretty quickly and they soon became an odd, and slightly creepy, annoyance.
Unlike Kyoto where the shrines are spread out all over the city, in Nara they are all bunched together. This makes seeing them all pretty easy because you don’t have to cover much ground, but it also means that the tourist hordes are jammed into a pretty small area, and between the tourons and the deer, I found the whole scene pretty irritating.
But I will admit that the shrines and temples were stoner as hell — some of the most impressive we saw in Japan, including one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world and a golden, phallus-coil tower erected there after World War II by the Buddhists in the name of planetary peace.
CONCLUSION
I have an old friend from my days at Grand Canyon who lives and teaches in Nara. He swears by the place and looks down his nose at Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo. He claims that Nara is the “real Japan”. Perhaps he’s right. Nara is definitely worth the trip, but I have to say that it reminded me a lot of Bruges, Belgium — an enchanting, make-believe, eye candy tourist trap that takes about a day or two to see. But after that, I’m not sure what you would do.
I spent eight days in Kyoto, and felt like I never scratched the surface. But then, I never saw any deer there either.
