Kintetsu-Nara & JR Nara

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/6

Where it sits

The circle is Kintetsu-Nara & JR Nara and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• Naramachi old town12 min walk962 m
• Nara National Museum18 min walk1.5 km
• Isuien Garden21 min walk1.8 km
• Todai-ji & the Great Buddha26 min walk2.1 km
• Nara Park & the deer27 min walk2.3 km
• Nigatsu-do Hall7 min taxi2.5 km
• Kasuga Taisha8 min taxi2.7 km
• Mount Wakakusa9 min taxi3.1 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 4.Kofuku-ji & the five-story pagoda — The great temple beside the centre, its five-story pagoda a symbol of Nara reflected in Sarusawa pond, with a superb hall of national-treasure Buddhist sculpture. Central, free to wander, and beautiful at dusk.
• 13.Horyu-ji — A short trip west, these are the oldest wooden buildings on earth — a 7th-century temple complex and Japan's first World Heritage Site, its pagoda and hall standing over 1,300 years. A pilgrimage for anyone serious about history.
• 16.Mount Yoshino — Japan's most famous cherry-blossom mountain, south of the city — 30,000 trees washing the slopes in pink each spring, with temples and trails among them. Time it right and it's magic.
• 17.Yakushi-ji — A serene UNESCO temple west of the centre with a beautiful 1,300-year-old pagoda and golden Buddhas — one of the oldest and loveliest in Japan, and far quieter than Todai-ji.
• 18.Tōshōdai-ji — A tranquil temple founded by a blind Chinese monk who crossed the sea to bring Buddhism to Japan — a sublime main hall and mossy grounds. Deeply peaceful, rarely crowded.
• 19.Heijō Palace — The vast site of Japan's first great capital, with reconstructed gates and halls rising from the fields — a window onto 8th-century Nara. Free, open and atmospheric.