Best From Kyoto to Nara Day Trip 2023

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Greetings, Internet Stranger! I’m Stella Jane, the author of the travel guide Get Lost, and welcome to a from Kyoto to Nara Day Trip! Pop quiz, hotshot! What’s the capital of Japan? Everyone knows it’s Tokyo, even you, Internet Stranger.

But what used to be the capital of Japan? Kyoto, you say? Yes, Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794-1868, which is not too shabby as capitals go. But what about spending 24 hours on a from Kyoto to Nara day trip?

Nara was the capital of Japan for almost all of the 8th century. Sadly, today it is primarily known for being overcome by a combination of terrifying bronze giants and hordes of hungry beasts.

Join me as we attempt to not have our fingers chomped by these aggressive creatures while still managing to snack, explore, and learn our way through our from Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

From Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

Morning: Explore Nara

Ahh, aren’t you excited! Let’s get ready for the from Kyoto to Nara day trip to commence!

GET OUT OF HERE, YOU CRAZY DEER! Sorry for the interruption. In Nara, as you will see, it’s hard to keep the deer out of your business. That’s why I suggest booking this excellent tour. It’s super affordable and tons of fun. Plus, your guide will help fend off the crazed deer, probably.

You can book this excellent tour for yourself by clicking here.

Come with me to explore…

Approximately top 5: From Kyoto to Nara day trip

1) Deer friend

The absolute first thing you must do during your from Kyoto to Nara day trip is see the deer in Nara Park. I mean, I say that like you have a choice, but in Nara you’re going to spend time with deer whether you want to or not.

See what I mean? They just show up whenever they feel like it.

The deer of Nara Park are sacred and killing one used to be a crime punishable by death. You won’t get executed anymore for killing a deer, but I don’t think it sounds like a nice thing to do, do you? So let’s all be nice to our deer friends.

See! This deer is asking very kindly for you to treat it gently. If you really care for your deer, a fun thing to do is buy crackers for the deer from one of the shika-senbei (deer cracker) stands roaming the park.

24 Hour Tip

Just be aware that the deer can recognize the crackers, so as soon as you buy some, you’ll be swarmed with a horde of RUDE deer pushing each other and you and nibbling on your fingers just to get a taste of some sweet cracker action. They’re like drug addicts with horns.

Don’t worry, though, they won’t hurt you. They’ll just tickle you and push you until they are satisfied you have no more crackers and then they’ll run off to the next victim leaving you a giggling mess surrounded by Japanese schoolchildren who are all laughing at you.

Don’t bother trying to get revenge. These deer are unstoppable. They’re like the Terminator, but cute.

2) Visit the Himuro Shrine

This is not one of the most famous shrines in Japan, but I think it is one of the lovelier ones I saw, especially during cherry blossom season. This beautiful tree is actually called a weeping cherry blossom tree, for what I think are fairly obvious reasons.

This shrine is also called the “ice shrine” because in old Nara, people used to freeze fish in blocks of ice and sacrifice them to the gods. I don’t want to gossip about the gods behind their back or anything, but they sure do have weird taste in sacrifices sometimes. Oh well, sacrificing a fish in ice is better than sacrificing a baby, as I always say.

3) The Kasuga Grand Shrine

You reach this grandest of shrines by taking a path that leads from Nara Park to the shrine itself. As you can see, the path to the shrine is lined with thousands of stone lanterns.

Aaaah! How did that deer get in the picture of the lanterns? Get a life, deer!

The shrine is decorated in the customary colors of white and shrine orange. Because it is a Grand Shrine, it is much bigger than the ice shrine earlier. The last time I visited, there was an admission fee of 500 Yen (about 5 dollars). Follow the signs and you’ll be able to see the entire shrine complex.

24 Hour Treasure

My favorite part of the shrine was this room filled with eerie lit lanterns. The lighting made it hard to take a picture, but I felt very at peace here. Each lantern represents a different prayer, so I felt surrounded by all the positive wishes of the people who had wanted lanterns placed here and…

Deer God, how did a deer get on that lantern? Is no place in Nara safe from these infernal creatures?

4) The Great Buddha

Now that you’re done with the Grand Shrine, it’s time on our from Kyoto to Nara day trip for the Great Buddha. He lives a deer-free life inside the Great Buddha Hall. This is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world.

As you can probably guess, this hall is a reconstruction because one of the hazards of being made of wood is that you get burned down from time to time. But though it’s a reconstruction, it’s still more impressive than anything I could build.

Also, I was kidding about the deer-free part.

In Nara, nothing is deer free! See that little guy being petted by the couple just above this sentence? Anyway, move past the deer and pay your Yen fee to meet the largest Buddha you have probably ever seen.

The Great Buddha is the large figure on the right. The smaller fellows to the Great Buddha’s left and right are bodhisattvas, which I gather is a good thing to be. I am not Buddhist, but I was awestruck by the power and grandeur of the Great Buddha.

Be warned, the hall is full of tourists taking pictures and pushing each other, which I don’t think is very enlightened of them. So you’ll have to be patient if you want to get a good picture.

Fascinating Fact

Many Japanese people practice both Shinto (a polytheist nature-based religion) and Buddhism at the same time. Temples are Buddhist and shrines are Shinto.

24 hour Tip

Those are all the secrets of the tour I can share for now. You’ll have to book the tour for yourself to find out more!

Check rates and availability right here!

5) street food time!

Now it’s time during our from Kyoto to Nara day trip to eat lunch! I don’t recommend stopping at a restaurant for lunch when there are so many places to buy fun snacks in Nara. Why not try some dango? These are sticky sweet rice dumplings served on an actual stick!

Don’t let that sneaky deer in the background steal it! Or you could get a freshly grilled rice cracker from a street vendor! You can get them topped with soy sauce or hot pepper, but I chose sugar. Sorry that I am not sorry.

If you want something healthier, get a roasted purple yam from a street vendor. It’s on the pricy side. One cost me about 900 yen, but they will fill you up all day and they taste like a sweet potato.

The only downside is that you have to eat it with your hands which will probably make you look like a weirdo.

If you’re in the mood for dessert, try some Yubari melon soft-serve ice cream. Yubari is sometimes called the Cadillac of melons because it is so sweet. That doesn’t really make sense to me. Do Cadillacs taste sweet?

If you want something a little classier, pick up a box of Mimuro Monaka, which are delicate wafers filled with sweet red bean paste. That sounds unappealing perhaps, but I promise it is delicious.

You can pick them up at a store called Mimuro Shiratamaya Eiju. This store is conveniently located on the road leading from the train station to Nara Park.

Just don’t let any of those sneaky deer take your snacks.

I see you trying to hide behind that fence, deer! You can’t have any of my Mimuro Monaka. Buy your own.

From Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

Afternoon: Afternoon Old Town Stroll

As I’m sure you can imagine with a city that has been around for well over a thousand years, Nara has a thriving old town with shrines, gardens, and adorable historic buildings. But I don’t think we’ll get the most out of the experience if we explore the old town on our own.

That is why I reserved a spot during our 24 hours in Nara on the Old Town walking tour done by Narawalk. This tour operates out of the Nara Visitor Center. Our guide was an extremely funny and friendly local who spent two hours leading us around the quaint homes, shops, and food stores and teaching us well more than…

Approximately top 5: nara old town edition

1) Monkey charms

If you walk around the old town, you will see that many homes have this string of little red and white figures hanging outside them.

Our guide told us that they are supposed to be good luck monkeys, and you should put one on the string for each member of the family. So you would assume that this household above has two parents and three children in it.

2) Cats of Nara

I got excited when I spotted this kitty and took its picture, and our guide, noticing that I was enamored of felines, told me that cats are so popular in Nara that the city’s nickname is Nya-ra. (Nya is the Japanese way to say Meow.) 

Here’s a cat. Can you spot it?

Another cat.

One more cat! My apologies if you are not a cat lover. At least it wasn’t deer anymore.

3) Have a sake tasting

Our guide took us in and out of old homes and shops and even took us to an old well where we got to pull up some water. But the best fact that we learned is that Nara is considered to be the birthplace of Japanese rice wine, sake, and you can’t go through Nara without tasting some.

We went to the Harushika Brewery located in the Nara Old Town to sample some for ourselves.

We got to sample three types of sake: sweet, dry, and fruity, and we got to eat them with a side of Japanese pickles. Which one did I like best? As usual, I say all of them. Cheers!

For a bonus, I even got to take home the little glass I drank my sake out of. You can pick one of four colors; I chose pink for cherry blossom season.

I highly recommend this tour. Our guide was so helpful and positive, and she even gave us a little Japanese candy at the end. Without her, I don’t think we would have been able to go inside the lovely traditional homes, learn about Naran customs, and get away from the deer for a moment.

NOOOOOO! Even inside a traditional home, there’s no escape! They’re everywhere!

From Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

Evening: Dinner at Muchan

After the tour, you are free to explore Nara on your own. You can find terrifying deer men and deer samurai.

How about a deer police officer?

Or mayhaps a deer-covered manhole cover?

When you’ve deerly had enough, it’s time for dinner. I was so proud of myself because I dined at a Japanese speaking only izakaya called Muchan near the train station. 

This place is SO SECRET that the link I provide you can only go to the address on Google Maps and there’s no English name listed for the restaurant. There was no menu in English and the waitresses spoke no English, but I got by.

Here’s what I did:

24 hour tip

First you go inside and say “hitori desu” if you are one person or “futari desu” if you are two people. You can also just hold up the number of fingers for the people in your party.

She’ll say “eigo no menu ga arimesen”, which means that they don’t have an English menu. Say “hai, wakarimashita” and she’ll show you to a table.

If she says “nomimono wa ikaga” she’s asking what you want to drink. Say “biru” for beer and “mizu” for water. Then you’ll get a menu in Japanese, and you’ll have to be adventurous! Just point to some random things and say, “kore o kudasai”. I did this and I got:

This is katsuo tataki, which is tuna (bonito) that is seared on the outside and raw on the inside. It tasted so fresh and I loved the oniony little salad on top.

Then I had some real sashimi made of buri (yellowtail). Not much to this dish but a tasty piece of yellowtail!

The best dish was hotaru ika, which are delicate firefly squid that are fortunately in season in the spring. These come with a yellow vinegar miso sauce on top. The sharpness of the sauce perfectly complemented the delicacy of the firefly squid. Also I love that name. When I start a rock band, I’m calling it Firefly Squid.

When you want the check, just say O-kaikei onegaishimasu. You made it! You went to a restaurant that is completely not intended for tourists. Don’t you feel special? Not even the deer can take this away from you.

From Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

Where to Stay?

Since this is a from Kyoto to Nara day trip, obviously we’ll be staying in Kyoto, so I’m going to suggest my lovely hotel in Kyoto, Kyoto Uraraka Guest House. It was in a neighborhood that was so safe, I saw children playing unattended in the nearby playground at night.

There was also a tasty breakfast with several kinds of fluffy, sweet Japanese breads every morning. Also, there was a Japanese-Australian-French family with an adorable three-year old son who was obsessed with trains. I mean, probably that little boy won’t be staying there when you are in Kyoto, but he is adorable and you never know.

If you want a great deal on this hotel, just click here.

If you’d rather explore great deals on thousands of other hotels in Kyoto, click here. This search engine will help you find the perfect place to stay for your from Kyoto to Nara day trip. With plenty of options to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something for your schedule and budget.

And That’s the best from Kyoto to Nara Day Trip

What would you like to do on a from Kyoto to Nara day trip? Have you ever climbed a sacred mountain? And are you scared of deer now? Please email me at stellajane@aroundtheworldin24hours.com and let me know!

Note: If you want to know how I put my travel itineraries together, just click here. Keep in mind that just because this is a 24 hour Kyoto to Nara day trip, it doesn’t mean you should only spend 24 hours in Japan on a Kyoto to Nara day trip.

There is always another 24 hours in Kyoto. You can also check out the best things to do in Southern Higashiyama, Kyoto. You can try a best attractions at Kyoto itinerary. Why not add on 24 hours in Osaka? You can also find out is Japan Rail Pass worth it.