Located 45 minutes to the east of Osaka, Nara is a popular day trip from Osaka or from Kyoto. Nara is famed for the deer park and is also home to one of the oldest wooden structures in the world. With my extra days in Osaka, I planned a day trip to Hiroshima and another day to visit Nara.

Nara (Kintetsu-Nara station) is easily reached by metro from Osaka. Upon arriving, I followed the crowd and found a bus stop where the bus would take me into Nara Park. Of course, it can be walked but with the summer temperatures, I opted to catch the bus to and from the park.

The main site that I wanted to see was Tōdai-ji, a wooden temple that was built in the mid 700s that houses the world’s biggest bronze buddha statue coming in at 16 metres high.

Signage was not that great in the park. I think I got off the bus a stop too early but continued on foot following google maps. I walked through a shopping area and a carpark until I found the stream of people.

To get there, you first have to enter the grounds through the Todai-ji Nandaimon (Grand South Gate). Inside this gate stand the 2 Nio at 8.5 metres tall. They are the fierce guardians of Buddha and I’ve noticed them a lot in Japan.

Once past the gate, I found the ticket office and bought a combination ticket that also included Todai-ji Museum which was just behind the ticket office. I went there first looking for an escape from the heat. The museum was small but housed some beautiful statues that I enjoyed.

Back out to the heat, I followed people heading towards the direction of Todai-ji, dodging deers and their poop. From my short experience with the deer, I had decided that being in a deer park was not really for me. They are cute but with the heat, the poop and the hoards of deer sometimes chasing after people with snacks, I thought that I could do with not being around the tourist deers. Luckily there were no deers within the Todai-ji complex.

Walking in the courtyard towards the Todai-ji, the huge structure is staggering. Surrounded by pristine gardens, the building is 57 metres long, 50 metres wide and 49 metres tall. Apparently this is smaller than the original complex! When you reach the entrance, the Great Buddha is there to welcome you. It is impressive to see such a huge statue which was originally put together in the mid 700s that still exists today (with repairs of course). Not to also mention the artistry of it and grandiose of the statue and temple alike.

Inside, you can walk around the Buddha and read about the building of the temple and have a close up look at some of the other statues.

Once finished, I decided that lunch was in order and had saved a few places on google maps throughout the park. I didn’t realise the park was so big and with the added heat, decided to go and have a look at the nearest ones. I settled on Satei Yusui as it wasn’t as busy and the other option and had an indoor space. I went with the somen set, cold noodles served with vegetable dishes that included some tempura vegetables. It was delicious and I quickly cleared all my plates. I had read that their desserts are also very good but on this occasion, I didn’t have any.

After lunch, I spotted some shrines on the map and walked to the general area. I’m not sure which ones I had stuck my head into or wandered into but it was a peaceful and leafy area. There was the odd deer here and there but they were not as aggressive as the ones previously right outside Todai-ji.

After walking around in the shrines, I decided to head back towards the main road going through the park to find some dessert. I had seen a sakura icecream earlier in the park area but decided not to backtrack and instead to try my luck elsewhere.

I found my way to the shops and carpark area that I had to cross initially to get to Todai-ji and had my mind on getting some pudding from Mahoroba Daibutsu Pudding. However, upon arriving, I decided to get ice cream instead from them and went with a custard and green tea mix.

After that, I decided it was time to head back to Osaka to rest. In hindsight, if I hadn’t been so tired I should have also gone to Kōfuku-ji Temple as well.

All in all, the park is huge and there are more temples, restaurants and shrines throughout the entire park. I think it would be hard to cover it all on foot. The city bus does go through the park in both directions as well which is another option but as it is a local bus, does not solely serve the park.

Have you been to Nara? Did you do anything else there?