Just a short train ride from Kyoto lies quaint Naramachi, or Nara, home to Japan's largest bronze Buddha and famous for its wild deer. In this Nara tour, a day trip from Kyoto, we'll join a local guide visiting key temples such as Todai-ji, Kasuga Shrine, and Kofuku-ji and learn about the Nara period in Japanese history. Of course, we'll also drop in on the deer, famous for their comfort around humans—we may even walk up and feed a few.

Our history lesson might begin at Temple Kofuku-ji, which has two pagodas and four great halls, inside one of which is a gleaming gilded Buddha. Although Kofuku-ji dates back to 669 (when it was built by a woman hoping her husband would recover from illness), the temple was actually built in Kyoto and then moved to Nara in 710. We will visit the Central Golden Hall (also known as ‘Chukondo’), which is the main building of Kofukuji. Originally built in the Tenpyo era, the Central Golden Hall was destroyed by war and fire, and it was rebuilt in 2018.

We'll also visit Kasuga Shrine (Kasuga-taisha), a Shinto shrine dedicated to protecting the city of Nara. The shrine has thousands of stone lanterns lining its entry path, and within are hundreds of bronze lanterns, donated by worshippers. Anyone who has visited Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto will immediately recognize Kasuga shrine’s orange torii gates. 

Our Nara tour wraps up at the temple Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple dating back to 750. It's home to the world’s largest Bronze Buddha Vairocana (a celestial Buddha). In Japanese, this Buddha is known simply as “Giant Buddha” (Daibutsu). It’s believed that more than 350,000 people worked on the Great Buddha’s construction. Todai-ji is the last stop on our tour, but we encourage you to have lunch or spend some of the afternoon visiting Nara's other attractions.

After our visit, we will have a better understanding of the importance of this historical city and the relevance of its temples and shrines. (To learn more, read our blog post on How to Tackle Nara).