we decided to go to nara for half day since we never went to nara. and i honestly didn't know what to do except for its famous wild-deer sightings. anyway, you can check here to get some ideas what to do in nara. the website also offered half day itinerary suggestions and full day and even several days itinerary. you can try follow one. for us, i decided to go to todaiji and then up to nigatsudo, then if we could walk more, we should see kasuga taisha before heading back to the station.

lots of deer once you stepped off the bus

so, we arrived by train, we brought all our baggage since we were moving hotels that day. so after we arrived at JR nara station, we had to find coin locker. fortunately, there were some coin lockers inside the arrival area, and some of the big ones were free. it was really fortunate since usually the bigger spaces were harder to get. and there was a coin changer at the side of the lockers so it was easier to change your money to 100 yen coins. i have to applause husband though since he managed to squeeze a big luggage, a medium luggage and a medium bag into one locker! you should see the other people's face when they waited for us to unload our baggage. they thought when we got out the two medium ones, that was all our baggage. imagined how surprised they were when they saw we still had one more inside!

see how old the wood is? that's why i said they looked dusty and dull

the creature at the gate

another one

anyway, once we finished the baggage situation, we faced two options, went by bus or on foot. we're supposed to walk so we could pass isuien garden or yoshikien garden. but husband was still tired for two days walking so he decided we should get the bus. so i didn't know for sure whether there was another bus, but there was this sign that we should ride bus from certain number bus stop if we wanted to see certain places. and the cost was more expensive than the one we found at google. since we were not prepared enough, we just hopped in and paid. actually, the sign on the bus said that we should paid in exact amount since they didn't provide any change. and we didn't have exact amount, so we thought oh well.. we might lose our change. but apparently, there was this change machine in front of the bus. so when you didn't have the exact amount, you just need to put the big coin in and it would spit out the exchange in smaller coins. for example, if you only had 500 yen coins, it would spit out five 100 yen coins as exchange. and if you needed smaller coins, you should put the coins until you got the change you needed.

anyway.. we paid and got our change and at first, we totally thought that we would stop at the last stop. but luckily, i looked at google maps and found out we were near nara park. so we decided to jump out and found out where we were. turned out we were lucky to got off at the right time. we were the opposite of nara park and we only need to walk shortly to todaiji temple. oh.. when we were on the bus, we could see the deer halfway, probably we could see it around the garden area up until nara park. but there were numerous of wild deer at the park. which made the park a bit smelly and dirty. back in indonesia, when there was any animal involved, it would make the site dirty because of the poop. and we were wondering whether japan could be any difference, since everything in japan seemed to be very clean. we haven't seen any dust almost everywhere we go. even the temples that we went to were very clean. but turned out we were wrong. nara park was full of deer poop, so you need to watch where your feet landed so you didn't step on any poop.

todaiji temple

daibutsu-den hall
the giant buddha was supposed to be inside, but we didn't get in

the park itself was quite big so your kids could run around in the park. but let me remind you that nara deers were wild deer, so made sure your kids don't bump into them or tease them or chase them. they might attack back. anyway, before we went there, i saw some colleague videos about how to feed the deer. you could buy the deer biscuit at many sellers around the park, anyone could do since it was sold at the same price. apparently there was no competition there. so, you should put one hand on your back and the other one was up holding the biscuit, then you should swing your arm forward and up again to indicate the deer to bow down. you should make them bow at least 3 times before giving them the biscuit as reward for being polite. but i've seen the deer keep asking for more even though they have run out of their biscuits. and i even saw some tourists just gave the biscuits without asking them to bow first. oh well.. the park was quite busy and i didn't see any park keeper so people could do whatever they want.

during our short walk, there were some shops selling souvenirs and snacks. and then there was this one straight path to todaiji temple. you should stop at the nandaimon gate and take a look at the giant creatures inside the cage at the gate. then you should walk a bit more before turning left. the entrance to the daibutsu-den hall was on the left near the toilet. fyi, i went to the toilet, and this was the first and only time that i found toilet in japan was dirty and smelly and not sophisticated. the toilets were ordinary toilets, not the one that had added toilet seat with warmer and stuff. i forgot whether it had changing table or not. anyway, the entrance was near the toilet, and you had to pay the ticket to get inside to daibutsuden hall. inside the hall, you could see the famous big buddha statue, but since husband was full of temples already, we decided to skip it. and we walked toward nigatsudo. it was one way path, so you would go from the entrance to the hall and then take the other way to find the exit. we then walked up the path, passed a pond and a recovery site toward nigatsudo.

ashoka pillar

手向山八幡宮参道

halfway, we found a little shop and husband was hungry so we stopped there and ate lunch. then we proceed going up to nigatsudo. while todaiji was almost flat with small steps, nigatsudo was full of stairs. to reach nigatsudo, you had to walk up some stairs. and then there was this open area where there was some cafe or shops at the side. you could take same rest here, but probably if the cafe or shops were opened, you need to buy something in order to sit there. there were two ways to go up, the east way was the path that i took. the stairs were pretty steep and it was made of stone. children could go up, but there was no handrail, so you need to hold your kids' hand. i didn't think elder people especially the ones with knee problem could go up. when you've reached the top, you could pray and buy some prayer's ticket, but if you just walked around, then it was totally free. the view from the balcony was quite pretty if the weather was clear. just across the balcony, there was seating area where you could drink some tea and sit and rest, but it was floor seating and you should clean up yourself before leaving it. then you could go down using the wooden entrance to go back to the open area.

the way to nigatsudo

sangatsudo

from there, actually you could go to smaller nara park and kasuga taisha after passing the forest, but husband found nara was not appealing to him. so he decided to just go back to the bus station and then to the train station and went to osaka instead. there were other places to visit, but we didn't get the chance to see. anyway, if you're interested, you should check kofukuji temple and naramachi area as well. you could bring kids or older people, but not all area were comfortable for kids and older people. and bring your own mask if you couldn't stand the smell. oh, and the bus stop was quite confusing as well. the dropping point and the pick up point were not closed by, so we almost got it wrong. so made sure you read the sign carefully, whether it's the pick up or the drop point. another small thing.. i noticed the difference between the temples in nara and kyoto, somehow the ones at nara seemed old. the wood was old and the paint looked dull, while the one at kyoto was shiny and clean. i didn't even see any spider webs at the ones in kyoto, but here.. everything seemed old and dusty. probably it needed more maintenance, but probably they'd like to keep the authenticity. anyway.. it looked and felt different. but, it's worth visiting if you had spare time and around kyoto or osaka since nara could be reached from both places.