During our trip to Japan, among the smaller cities we visited near Kyoto, Nara is without doubt the one I loved most. Apparently small, it reveals itself in reality as a true gem. You only need to step out of the station, cross the first large junction, and you immediately find yourself walking along a small street full of delightful shops that leads you straight to the marvellous Nara Park. The park is one of the unmissable sights of this city, and almost all the places of greatest interest are found within it — and to our great astonishment it is home to some 1,200 deer that freely roam and interact with people! Which is why Nara is also known as the city of deer :)

Nara

Thanks to a well-made map that a lady at the information centre kindly gave us, we managed to take a long walk through the park visiting the main temples and sites. One of Japan's great qualities — excellent, I would say — is that everything is always well organised. One could almost travel without a guidebook, given the large amount of information that is often readily available at every station.

One of the unmissable sights in Nara is without doubt the Todai-ji temple, one of the most famous and ancient in Japan.

Built in 752, it houses inside it the largest Buddha in the world, cast in bronze and standing more than 16 metres tall.

Wandering still within the park, founded in 1880, are the Kasuga Taisha and Kofuku-ji temples and the Nara National Museum. Kasuga Taisha is the most celebrated shrine in Nara, while the Museum houses principally Japanese Buddhist art where you can admire beautiful wooden and bronze statues depicting Buddhas or warrior-guardians. Walking among the trees of the park, admiring the great beauty of temples and pagodas; encountering deer as though they were cats and being able to stroke them without their taking fright is, without any hesitation, a unique and moving experience. And if you are also lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day, everything will be clothed in a magical and surreal atmosphere.

To visit Nara and most of its temples with the time and leisure they deserve, I recommend dedicating a full day to it; it is also easily reached by train from Kyoto in approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Near the station and the main road there are several side streets full of small shops where you can indulge in shopping and buy original, non-commercial objects and gifts. Finally, another thing I strongly recommend — since you are in Nara — is to stop at a restaurant and try the "okonomiyaki": a typical dish of that area that you will rarely find in other cities! It is a cross between a savoury pancake and an omelette, with a base of vegetables and a series of ingredients of your choice — meat or fish — to add. The ingredients, in a small bowl, will be mixed together in front of you before being "spread" onto the teppanyaki, the Japanese griddle, and cooked on the spot!

I was enchanted watching the girl mix and cook that delicious okonomiyaki right before my eyes :) Each table has its own teppanyaki, so your dishes will always arrive hot and tasty. It is something truly delicious that, if you are a food lover, you absolutely must not miss if you find yourself in the Nara or Osaka area.

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