Concerning Restaurants & Hotels

Concerning Restaurants & Hotels

It's a sin to visit Nara and not have a kaiseki dinner, an aesthetically arranged 7- to-12-course set meal using the freshest ingredients. It's usually an evening meal, but most kaiseki restaurants serve mini-kaiseki at lunchtime for day-trippers. Most traditional restaurants are small and have set courses. Nara retires early, and restaurants close around 10 PM, taking last orders around 9 PM. Small restaurants and izakaya (after-work drinking haunts that serve an array of small dishes and drinks) are dispersed throughout the two main shopping streets, Higashi-muki Dori (a pedestrian arcade) and Konishi-dori, close to Kintetsu Nara Station. When ordering food, start by asking for an osusume (a suggestion) and go from there. Don't be embarrassed or afraid to communicate, even without Japanese, as people in Nara look after their visitors. But keep in mind that each time you eat some delicious sashimi or order tempura you add ¥600-¥900 to your bill. Learning a language can be expensive! Expect to pay about ¥750 for a large bottle of beer. Because English-speaking staff and English menus aren't givens, ask a staff member from your hotel to help make arrangements. Alternatively, stay in a ryokan (traditional inn), where a kaiseki dinner is included in the room rate.

Nara has accommodations in every style and price range. Since most people treat the city as a day-trip destination, at night the quiet streets are the domain of Nara's residents. All lodgings have air-conditioning, televisions, and communal baths unless noted otherwise. Some ryokan close on Sunday nights. Hotels in Central Nara around the main railway stations are often noisier than those closer to Nara Koen and in Nara-machi. During spring and autumn and peak holiday periods, rooms are hard to find on weekend nights. Book well in advance if you plan to travel to Nara during these times.