Nara Day Trip from Osaka – Nara Walking Tour to Visit Japan’s Cute Deer!

Nara is home to Japan’s famous (and super cute!) free roaming deer and incredible temples. It’s super easy to take a day trip to Nara from Osaka, as the train from Osaka to Nara takes as little as 35 minutes. This Nara walking tour covers what to do in Nara in one day, deer selfies included!

Why Take a Nara Day Trip?

I was instantly sold on a Nara day trip when I spotted snaps of Nara’s free roaming deer. Combines my two loves perfectly – animals and travel!

However, beyond the (utterly gorgeous) Nara deer, Nara is also a ridiculously picturesque town. Nara was once the capital of Japan (well at least in the 8th century AD!) and is chockablock with with ancient temples.

If you’re visiting Japan and planning your Japan itinerary, a day trip to Nara is a must do in my books. Nara’s a pretty compact city, and you can easily plan a Nara itinerary to explore the key sights on foot in just one day.

How to Get to Nara

Nara is less than one hour by train from Osaka or Kyoto.

Nara from Osaka

There are two train lines to Nara from Osaka, which take just 35-50 minutes. The JR Yamatoji Line is covered by the Japan Rail Pass. The Kintetsu Nara Line from Osaka to Nara is not covered by the JR Pass, but it is faster and the train stations are more central.

JR Yamatoji Line: The Yamatoji Rapid Service from Osaka Station to JR Nara Station takes around 50 minutes. This line is included in the JR Pass.

Kintetsu Nara Line: The Kintetsu Nara Line travels from Osaka Namba Station to Kintetsu Nara Station. This line is not included in the JR Pass. The Rapid Express train takes around 40 minutes, and the Limited Express train takes around 35 minutes. The Limited Express train is roughly twice the price of the Rapid Express train, so probably not worth the 5 minute time saving!

Nara from Kyoto

Nara is an easy day trip from Kyoto, and is worth adding into your Kyoto itinerary if you’re in Kyoto for a few days or more. There are also two train lines to Nara from Kyoto, which take 35-45 minutes.

JR Nara Line: The express service from JR Kyoto Station to JR Nara Station takes around 45 minutes. There is also a longer service by local train. This line is included in the JR pass.

Kintetsu Nara Line: The express service from Kintetsu Kyoto Station to Kintetsu Nara Station takes around 35 minutes. This line is not included in the JR Pass.

Overview of Nara Itinerary

Distances between the two most famous temples (Todaiji and Kasuga) and back to Nara Station

Time Required for Nara 1 Day Itinerary

A day trip to Nara will take up to 10 hours. Allow 2 hours total for the return trip to Nara, and around 5-7 hours to explore Nara. You may need longer if you want to go inside several temples or have frequent breaks.

The Nara walking tour below took me 5 hours door to door from Nara Station. I love architecture from the outside, but am not a fan of seeing every nook and cranny of every temple. I didn’t go inside the temples, and only had 30 minutes for lunch. Plus, I’m a pretty fast walker!

Nara Attractions

My Nara one day itinerary is temple and deer heavy, but also includes time for the parks, historic neighborhoods and even a bit of cheeky sake tasting.

Most Nara temples are open from 9am – 5pm. It’s free to enter Nara Park and walk around the temple grounds. Some temples charge an entry fee to go inside, usually Y200 – Y600. You can also buy deer biscuits for Y150.

Nara Walking Tour Map

This Nara walking route is 10 – 13km door to door from JR Nara Station, including time walking between and around sites. My walk was over 12km. As with my Hiroshima walking tour, I didn’t have my Nara walk fully mapped out in advance, and took a couple of wrong turns.

If you want to shorten your Nara walking tour, arrive at Kintetsu-Nara station which is around 1.5km closer to Nara Park, or get the bus to/from Nara Park.

Follow my Google Maps Nara route for an awesome Nara day trip itinerary. Don’t worry about getting lost – Nara is possibly the best sign posted place in Asia. There’s maps and signs galore, in both English and Japanese, with directions and distances. Most temples are between a few hundred meters and 1km apart. All distances below are approximate.

What to Do in Nara

The most popular things to do in Nara are to explore Nara Park which is home to free-roaming deer, and visit the Nara temples. As incredible as Nara’s temples are, I’ll admit that it’s pretty easy to get templed-out. I decided to focus on a mix of popular and smaller temples, see as many deer as I could, and leave time to wander around Nara town.

Stop 1: Kofuku-Ji Temple (Map B)

Distance: Walk 1.4km from Nara Station to Kofuku-ji temple. Shorter from Kintetsu Nara Station.

Start your Nara walking tour with a quick introduction to the Nara temples. Walk east from Nara Station until you find the Kofuku-ji temple complex. Kofuku-ji includes a number of temples. The highlights for me were the octagon shaped temple (above) and the five storied pagoda.

Stop 2: Japanese Gardens – Yoshiki-en or Isuien (Map C)

Distance: Walk 800m from Kofuku-ji temple to Yoshiki-en gardens.

A 10 minute walk north-east takes you to your next stop on your Nara day trip – Yoshiki-en gardens. Yoshiki-en has a few examples of traditional Japanese gardens like a moss garden and a tea ceremony house. It’s pretty small, but entry is free and, hey, everyone likes free stuff. And as you can see from my photo above, it’s super picturesque!

If Japanese gardens are your jam or if you have an extra day in Nara, then don’t miss Isuien gardens. Isuien gardens are right next door to Yoshiki-en, and are regarded as the most beautiful gardens in Nara. Entry is Y900, so I gave it a miss.

Stop 3: Todaiji Gate and Temple (Plus Deer!!!) (Map D)

Distance: Walk 1.2km from Yoshiki-en gardens to Todaiji-temple, via Nandaimon Gate of Todaiji.

Todai-ji temple is a UNESCO world heritage site, and is one of the more popular (read: crowded!) temples in Nara. While it is very pretty, I prefer to avoid crowds, so I pretty much walked past and exited stage left without going inside.

Make sure you walk from the Japanese gardens via the Nandaimon Gate of Todaiji (see piccy above). I have a thing for ginormous and intricate gates (gates are so boring these days!) and the Todaiji gate was nothing short of spectacular.

Happy to pose for selfies, until they realise you’re out of deer biscuits

You’ll also get your first taste of the famous Nara deer on your walk to and around Todaiji temple. You can buy a stack of deer biscuits for Y150 from the street side vendors.

Nara deer are greedy buggers so a pack of biscuits lasts all of 30 seconds. These deer know what side their bread is buttered on. They’ll spot you purchasing deer biscuits, hightail it over to you, and start nudging you while you unwrap it. Once they’ve decimated your biscuits, lift your hands in the air to show them that the party’s over.

Nara deer are particularly crafty at sniffing out (and stealing!) anything edible, so keep any other food closed in your bag.

Stop 4: Nigatsu-do Temple (Map E)

Distance: Walk 500m from Todaiji-ji to Nigatsu-do temple.

Nigatsu-do temple is 5-10 minutes walk from Todaiji-ji and has lovely views over Nara. The walk may take a little longer if you stop to pet and feed all the deer along the way!

By this time, I was peckish so stopped at one of the nearby cafes to have a late brunch and stretch the legs.

Stop 5: Nara Park (Map F)

Distance: Walk 600-800m from Nigatsu-do to Nara Park, depending on the paths you take.

You don’t actually need to go to the small ‘Nara Park’ area on the map to see deer, as they are everywhere around the broader Nara Park and temples. You could equally walk direct from Nigatsu-do straight to Kasuga and save your legs some extra walking.

I took this slight detour from my planned Nara walking route to Nara Park, just in case there were some magical deer that I wouldn’t see elsewhere. The park is pretty and perhaps has a slightly higher concentration of deer. It’s also a nice diversion in case you’re starting to get temple fatigue.

Stop 6: Kasuga-Taisha and Wakamiya Shrine (Map G)

I think someone spots a deer biscuit …

Distance: Walk 1km from Nara Park to Kasuga-taisha temple.

From Nara Park, it’s a flat walk and then a short climb up hill to Kasuga-taisha temple. (Not a big hill, I promise.) Kasuga-taisha is also a very popular shrine, and was one of the busier ones I visited. Again, I didn’t go in.

My fav part was the hundreds of stone lanterns (above) that line the paths around the temple, with cute little deer peeking out.

Stop 7: Shinyakushi-ji Temple (Map H)

Distance: Walk 1km from Kasuga-taisha to Shinyakushi temple.

From Kasuga-taisha, take the path through the forest past Wakamiya and Kinryu shrines. This was my favorite walking part of my day in Nara, as you’re suddenly in a denser forest away from the crowds.

Keep heading south and, if you’re not all templed out, stop at Shinyakushi-ji temple. (Last temple, I promise! If you’re a temple junkie, there’s tonnes more scattered around the city.)

I popped into Shinyakushi-ji since it was on my way. The best thing about Shinyakushi-ji is that it’s outside the main Nara tourist area, so was serene and quiet. However, at Y600 with not a lot to see (I stayed for 5 minutes), you can give this one a miss if you’re counting pennies.

Stop 8: Harushika Sake Tasting (Map I)

Distance: Walk 1.3km from Shinyakushi-ji temple to Harushika Sake Brewery.

By now, I was well and truly templed-out. I was tired. My feets hurted. (Too tired for proper English.) So I decided to pop into Harushika Sake Brewery which offers sake (rice wine) tastings for Y500. I’m not a massive sake fan, but when in Rome and all that.

I tasted 6 different sakes and, what do ya know, they do all actually taste different after all! Dry sake, fruity sake, strong sake, fizzy cloudy sake … I had no idea what the alcohol content was and thought I might leave a leeeeetle sozzled. However, the tastings are shot sized so you’ll still have your legs afterwards. You also get a little sake glass to take home as a souvenir.

Stop 9: Naramachi Streets

Distance: Walk 2km from Harushika Sake Brewery to Nara Station, via the backstreets of Naramchi.

So sake tasting turned out to be the most excellent idea of my day trip to Nara. I had a sake-spring in my step, and was ready to get back on those legs. If you’ve really had it, jump in a taxi back to the train station.

If you can push on, walk back to the train station via the historic streets of Naramachi. The Naramachi streets are filled with shops, galleries and eateries, and you can visit the traditional wooden houses.

After Naramichi, finish your day by heading back to the train station or to your local hotel. That’s it – you’ve pretty much covered the highlights of Nara on foot in less than one day. Whoop whoop to that!

Other Japan Day Trips In Kansai 

It’s definitely worth spending a few days in the Kansai region with either Osaka or Kyoto as a base. I traveled to Nara from Osaka after equally full days exploring Osaka and Hiroshima on foot – no wonder my feet were aching!

Read More: Check out my favorite things to do in Kyoto.

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