Nara, Japan - Day Trip from Kyoto or Overnight?
 

I am currently leaning toward doing a day trip to Nara from Kyoto rather than spending a night there. We are trying not to switch locations too often on this trip. Our itinerary currently looks like this:
4 nights Tokyo
1 night Noto Peninsula
3 nights Kanasawa
1 night Yamashiro Onsen (Ryokan)
5 nights Kyoto
If we were to spend a night in Nara, we would then stay 4 nights in Kyoto. Does anyone have a very compelling reason not to do a day trip? My understanding is that we can reach Nara from Kyoto in 33 minutes by train.

I like to stay overnight in Nara because I want to eat at the Vietnamese restaurant in the arcade...

Using kintetsu line it is fast and easy to go to Kyoto.

We did the day trip. Very easy. And my wife was bit on her back end by a deer. Don't trust those buggers.

It depends on what you want to see and experience!

I found more than enough to see in/around Nara - including some trip highlights - to keep me fully and delightfully occupied for 2 full days - not counting my time (4+ days) in Kyoto. And there were places I wanted to see between Nara and Kyoto (such as Uji) that were more convenient for me to visit en route rather than to try to fit them into a day-trip or even a second day trip.

Too, there was an evening performance of Noh in Nara at the time I was there, and that was definitely a priority for me.

But I don't mind switching locations frequently, and many people do.

Hope that helps!

PS - OMG, colduphere!

You two might have interest in a overnight in Nara. Not only for the temples, sights and Kim's Vietnamese treats but Nara is also very scenic at that time of year with the fall colors happening and hopefully you will see some while your there. Next fall will be earlier than the last two....or so someone here says. Check some fall pics of Nara and its sights:

http://tinyurl.com/aro69r4

Aloha!

Nice photos - and photos of the killer deer as well.

I did a day trip to Nara, I didn't see that much reason to stay there overnight - it's quick by train. Personally, I find taking trains around Japan really easy and prefer to not switch hotels too often because I don't want to take my luggage on the train - it's too expensive to switch hotels by taxi as I would in say, China or Thailand.

Kja - our eight year old son was holding some peanuts, as I remember. The deer were swarming him so my wife rescued him by grabbing the peanuts. One deer did not appreciate her intervention and bit her on the rear. I showed my protective nature by snapping pictures through it all.

[cold ... LOL. With apologies for laughing at what I'm sure was an awful experience. Still laughing, though. (Please forgive me.) OMG! I hope your wife and son came to recognize the 'wisdom" of your decision to catch the perp in the act, as it were! I had heard that the deer in Nara Park can be "a bit" aggressive; I must admit that I always thought those stories exaggerated. So sorry I was wrong! I walked through the park in the early morning, no problems at all - just some nice views of grazing deer. I'm going to try to not take that as a comment about the desirability - or lack thereof - of my bite-able parts! Gotta' love the things one learns on Fodor's]

I hated the deer in Nara. they were very cute for the first few minutes, but then they nipped my daughter ( about 6 at the time) and then ripped my purse when one big deer stuck his head in it.

I'd do a day trip and stay in Kyoto.

We did a day trip to Nara for Kyoto and found that was sufficient, as we didn't want to switch hotels either.

When we arrived at the train station and asked the info center, they directed us to some visitor center a few minutes walk away that was hosting some free programs for travelers. They were having a kimono dressed-up party and afterward a tea ceremony demo--all free for tourists. There were a bunch of Japanese volunteer ladies helping giggling tourists dressed up in kimonos in a tatami-floored room strewn with different outfits, hair pins, etc. Three ladies fussed over me and helped me wear mine, and did up my hair with hairpins, etc. I didn't wear a kimono but a simpler one for a maiko, more suitable for my young age, they said, --ok, that was back in 2004. My husband also got to wear the equivalent one for males. It was fun and everyone was giggling laughing and posing for photos.

Aftewards, we went to another room for tea ceremony in our outfits. We didn't walk into the next room, but crawled through a tiny square hole in the wall to go the next room. I still don't know what's the deal with that, as the ladies didn't speak much English. They directed us to the proper tea cermoney. First sit on our shins on the tatami mat floor, admire the ink-brush painting on the wall, and the fresh flower arrangement. Then another lady demo-ed the tea ceremony--almost in slow motion--rinsing the cups, spinning the bowl, etc. It was a fun experience and probably took up 2 hours of our time in Nara.

Afterwards, we met up with a volunteer student guide who showed us the famous temple at Nara. His English was quite decent, and he told us to crawl through Buddha's nose (hole in a pillar), like all students were doing for good luck. We treated him out to lunch at an udon shop, and we parted ways. We spent the rest of the afternoon going to another temple and wandered the streets of Nara and took the evening train back to Kyoto.

And yes, watch for the deer. They were trying to nibble my butts.

i too got a good laugh...

JC98, what a wonderful experience! If you were young enough to be given what I assume is a furisode-style kimono in 2004 then you are still young.

Now that I've joined this thread, I will add my 2 sen: I have no very compelling reason to not visit Nara as a day trip.

Craig, you have me thinking about whether to re-arrange my itinerary a bit and just visit Nara from Kyoto.

> you have me thinking about whether to re-arrange my itinerary a bit and just visit Nara from Kyoto

Oh, but there really is so much to see in Nara! Do think carefully before you shift your plans.

Kathie, I started this thread because of the posts on your thread - LOL. I am leaning towards doing Nara as a day trip. We can always return there on our next trip to Japan :-) .

Checking on the travel time:
35 minutes on Kintetsu limited express train to Kintetsu Nara station or 47 min on an express. 45 minutes on JR Rapid Service train to JR Nara station or 72 minutes on JR local.

Yes, a limited express is faster than an express in Japan.

Nara to Kyoto:
Last Kintetsu ltd exp at 20:58. Last express at 22:58
Last JR rapid train is at 18:55. Last local at 23:09

The map here shows the locations of both stations:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/pdf/pg-507.pdf

If I understand, Kathie and Craig, you have different time frames in mind: Kathie is thinking of 7 nights in the area, 5 in Kyoto and 2 in Nara - perfect IMHO! Craig has 5 nights for the area, and so will have to be selective no matter whether he sees Nara as a day trip or not. Different planning scenarios!

Just what I was thinking kja.

Kathie has the two more days which really does give them the option.

Craig has five nights in the area making a day trip for them more viable if and only if they can squeeze it out of their Kyoto time especially when the first night in Kyoto will have been a move and travel day. But there are sights and countless Kodak moments in Nara that I felt at least Jeane would be interested in an overnight.....decisions decisions, lol

Aloha!

It is really hard to decide. I was firm on two nights in Nara, and then started thinking about all there is to do and see in Kyoto. Would staying in Kyoto give us more flexability in how we spend our time? That's what I'm considering. I don't think there is a wrong answer to this!

One aspect of spending the night is to be able to enjoy the night illumination of key sights provided by the local tourist authorities.
Kyoto has great programs for night tourism and I'm sure Nara does as well.
I don't know what the schedules are for certain times of the year of special night illuminations in each area but its worth looking into.
Some great memories of walking Kyoto without crowds in late evening seeing temples,trees and monuments illuminated.

> It is really hard to decide. I was firm on two nights in Nara, and then started thinking about all there is to do and see in Kyoto. Would staying in Kyoto give us more flexability in how we spend our time? That's what I'm considering. I don't think there is a wrong answer to this!

Kathie, are you still thinking of going to Nara first? If so, I think that staying in Kyoto would limit your flexibility FAR more than spending 2 nights in Nara. Here's my thinking:

I'm not sure what time you would get there from Kanazawa. But let's assume you have at most part of that day in Nara, and then let's assume you spend two nights in Nara before heading to Kyoto. So that would give you, say, 1.5 days in Nara. If you are done with it, you can move on to Kyoto in the morning. If you aren't, you can stay until you're ready to leave.

I must admit that I find it hard to imagine running out of things to see in Nara in 1.5 days, especially since you say your priorities are temples and gardens. And I think you will still have enough time to see your priorities in Kyoto even if you don't go there until late in the day after a 2nd night in Nara. You still won't be able to see everything in/around Kyoto, but you'll be able to see quite a lot, even at a leisurely pace. I also think you might find the contrasts between Kyoto and much older Nara interesting. I sure did!

As you think through your decision, remember to consider not just the time between the two cities (which mrwunrfl has kindly given you), but also the time to get to/from the station to wherever else you need/want to be. Both train stations in Nara are some distance from any sites of interest.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4107.html


> One aspect of spending the night is to be able to enjoy the night illumination of key sights

Absolutely! kalihiwai2 makes a great point here - do check the illumination options for each city for the times you'll be there!


Another thought: I found being in Nara early in the morning greatly to my advantage: I was glad to walk through Nara Park while the deer were sleeping or quietly grazing (my sympathies to all the victims mentioned above!) and to walk the lantern-lined path to Kasuga Shrine while there were still wisps of morning fog in the air - awesome!


So many options! As you say, there's no wrong answer. It all comes down to your priorities.

kja- You have a lot of good thoughts on travelling in Japan. Did you do a TR on your travels? If you did, I'd like to read it, but I could not find it under your name.

> shelleyk

Thanks for your interest! No, I didn't write a trip report - I went to Japan before I became a Fodorite. But I'm happy to provide whatever insights I can, so feel free to ask away! Note that you might want to post separate threads (I think you have one underway about Shirakawa-go?), to make sure you get input from everyone who checks this board - we've traveled at different times and for different reasons and with different budgets, so I think you'll benefit from getting a wide range of responses.

Interesting. kja, I like your thinking.

Craig, I was going to say that given the easy travel times and considering that the Kodak moments (largely) go away when it is dark, that it is a matter deciding whether you want to wake up in Nara and Kyoto.

kalihiwai2 gives a good reason for spending night time in Nara, though may see that and still get back to Kyoto that night. I did spend a night in Nara (enroute from/to elsewhere) and missed that fun.

And kja gives good reason for for waking up in Nara!

... wake up in Nara OR Kyoto.

> Interesting. kja, I like your thinking.

Thanks, mrwunrfl! :-)

There is an awful lot to see in Nara - I actually spent 3 nights but I didn't go to Kyoto on that trip - I was coming from Kyushu. You can do many of the local sights in one day but there are others outside of town and in more than one direction so you can pretty much spend days there...lol...
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2165.html

Wonderful information from all of you. I really appreciate it. We are still researching, but you have given us a lot to think about.

Our itinerary took us from Tokyo to Takayama and from there we headed straight to Nara for an overnight. We didn't see as much of Nara as many visitors but still we loved the time we spent there. To be fair, a lot of that had to do with the magical ryokan experience we had -- we were the only guests in the whole ryokan that night, we were given a beautiful room with enormous glass windows overlooking a large and delightful moss garden and we had the what may have been the best meal of our trip there too. Our room had an en suite cypress wood bath (and shower) but we were also invited to use one of the large bathrooms, of course with no one else there, that meant private use. It was also beautiful!

From there we went to Kyoto for 5 nights, spending the first 2 in a Gion ryokan (which we also absolutely loved) and then 3 in the Granvia in Kyoto Station. I hadn't been sure about the Granvia on booking but the location was superb for us as we used the trains more on these last days to visit various temples, Arashiyama and also the Yamazaki Distillery. (There are two great reports on the distillery on my husband's blog, PeteDrinks.com including the utterly fabulous whisky library and bar and a video of it from yours truly). We also liked the ease of eating out in the evenings within the station itself -- coming from Britain the thought of great food in department store food courts was hard to believe but tha's how we found it!

After the 5 Kyoto nights we went to Koyasan for one night (a slight faff of a journey but the last main segment on the train was beautiful, winding along next to a river and then rising up into the mountains. Then the "cable car" (which is actually a funicular) and then a local bus at the top to get to our chosen temple.

From there a stopover night in Osaka. We didn't warm to it, though I loved my visit to the Cup Noodle museum, but we'll go again next time as we didn't spend long enough there to give it a fair chance. And then to Hiroshima and Miyajima and after that, back to Tokyo.

If you have 5 nights in Kyoto already, I'd say one night in Nara is definitely worthwhile (assuming your train times give you a good half day on the day of arrival and some time on the day of departure as well. If not, I'd do 2 nights there without hesitation.

I have posted here about our Ryokan in Nara, and would request the downstairs garden view room, en suite bathroom and it has a cute little bridge from the main building to the room entrance.

http://www.kaveyeats.com/2013/01/kai...o-in-nara.html