Day 6: Half Day in Nara, Up-close with Deer at Nara Deer Park

If you visit Nara, you must visit Nara Deer Park otherwise your trip to Nara doesn’t count. *LOL* If you plan to just spend half day in Nara, this is the easiest attraction to locate and access. Nara Park is a five minute walk from Kintetsu Nara Station, this is the best way to get there. If you are from JR Nara Station, it will take you about 20 minute. Alternatively, the park can be reached by bus. There are multiple stops around the park.

Greeted by the deer, curious creature, make sure you keep your cables or whatever dangling around you away or else they are going to chew on it. Do not tease them with non-food or something they can’t eat to avoid getting attacked. Only feed them the deer crackers which you can buy at the park and make sure you don’t tease them with it too. Be sincere, give it to them, don’t play with their feelings. Make sure you do not leave anything on the ground, the deer will eat anything they see and you will kill them.

Walking further into the park, the deer will get less as most gathered at the entrance. There are few buildings inside with rich history and being classified as National Treasure. Kōfuku-ji (興福寺, Kōfuku-ji) is one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, in the city of Nara, Japan.

Left: Here, you can see the five-story pagoda(五重塔 Gojū-no-tō) is a National Treasure built in 1426.

Right: Nan’endō(南円堂) which is an Important Cultural Property, built in the year 1741, it’s know as Site No.9 of Saigoku 33 Pilgrimage.

Left: East Golden Hall(東金堂 Tōkondō) is also one of the National Treasures built in the year 1425 which is one of the former three golden halls.

Right: Somewhere near the toilet ;p

Left: Taking photo with the deer is a must-do *LOL*

Right: Sarusawa-ike(49 Noborioji-cho, Nara, Nara Prefecture 630-8213) is a manmade pond. This is an artificial pond that was dug in 749 as part of the grounds of Kofukuji Temple. This is a great place for cherry blossom in spring and experience the Nara’s fall colours. Apparently there’s a legend related to this pond.

There is a legend that during the Nara period (710-794), the Emperor’s favor for the lady of the court, Uneme, waned and she drowned herself in grief here. At the edge of the pond is the Uneme Shrine which pays respect to the Uneme deity. (source: https://www.japanhoppers.com/en/kansai/nara/kanko/1235/)

After all the walking, it’s time for food! Hungry! When you come here, it’s a must to eat Kakinoha zushi(柿の葉ずし) also known as Persimmon Leaf Sushi. We bought it at a kiosk called Hiraso 平宗(2-1, Higashimukinakamachi, Nara city, Nara, 630-8215) just outside Kintetsu Nara Statio. Hiraso is founded back in 1861 at Yoshino Yamatokami City in the south part of Nara while Nara branch opened in 1968.

The one with reddish orange top is salmon and the one at the bottom right is mackerel. They are flavored with salt and vinegar. As for the two types of maki you see in the photo, the fillings are made up of different type of pickles.

After spending about 4 hours at Nara, we headed over to Fushimi Inari Taisha at Kyoto. This will be in the next post.

You can see more of Nara Deer Park in this video: