Nara Park covers an area of about 5.25 square kilometers (four kilometers from east to west and two kilometers from north to south). Various kinds of trees, including huge Japanese cedars, oaks and wistarias, grow in the park. Among the structures in and around the park are Kofukuji Temple, the Nara National Museum, Todaiji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Wakakusa (Mikasa) Hill. More than 1,000 deer live in the park, which is also called "deer park."
Many visitors who arrive in Nara walk from Kintetsu Nara Station to the east. Only a few minutes from the station, on the right side, is Kofukuji Temple. You can take Higashimuko Street, which is a shopping arcade to Sanjo Street This shopping street runs just east of the station. There are some traditional stores which sell sweets, etc. If you turn left on Sanjo Street, you will find Sarusawa no
Ike (Sarusawa Pond) on the right.
If you walk around the pond, you will see a beautiful view of the five storied pagoda of Kofukuji Temple, and you may be able to see its reflection on the pond. If you climb up fifty-two steps and cross Sanjo Street, you will be at Kofukuji Temple.
Kofukuji Temple has about 170 National treasures including buildings, Buddha images, and art works. It is worth seeing Kofukuji National Treasure House, which exhibits about 20 National Treasures all the time. You should not miss the Ashura statue, which is probably the most famous art work here.
To the east side of Kofukuji Temple is the Nara National Museum, one of the three national museums in Japan. It has a new building, and it has 170 National Treasures all together. In the spring and fall, it is particularly worth visiting, because it has an exhibit of Shosoin. On the first floor of the new building, there is a computer facility, which you can see photographs of items exhibited not only in this museum but also in the Kyoto and Tokyo National Museums. Descriptions are provided in Japanese, English, French, Chinese, Korean, etc, and the information is very interesting.
On the south side of the museum is Ichi-no-Torii (first gate) of Kasuga Taisha Sharon. You can walk to the main building in the park along a road with many lanterns on each side of the road. You will not believe you are in a city.
Walking on the north side of the museum and turning left when you find many souvenir shops, you will find many deer on the road and beside it. They know where they can be fed shika senbei (a kind of cracker for deer), which tourists buy from peddlers and feed them to the deer. The deer are very tame, and they are not afraid of tourists. In fact, they approach people walking through the park or along the edge, hoping to be fed.
Walking straight north, you will see a massive, old gate, which is Nandaimon, the south main gate of Todaiji Temple. It has two big statues of temple guardians on either side of the opening in the gate. Walking straight ahead, you will come up to another huge gate, Chumon, the middle gate. You need to pay admission here to go to see Kondo, the main hall, where the Daibutsu, the great Buddha image is. This is the largest wooden building in the world.
In the southern part of the park, down a hill from the main part of the park, is a particularly beautiful section of the park. There is a pond with a bridge across it. Off of the bridge is a hexagonal shelter called Ukimido. Visitors can rent rowboats to row around the pond. During Daimonji, when the character "dai" (great) is burned on a hillside above Nara, it is a good place to observe. Photographers set up their cameras in the afternoon to be certain of getting a good spot.
Reference
Kitamura S. (1986). Full-day's Excursion to Nara, The Repository of Old Cultural Assets. Nara: Nara YMCA.
Shimazu, M. (Ed.). (1990). Nara. Tokyo: JTB. (in Japanese)
Kurahashi, E. & Kato, M. (Eds.). (2001) Kofukuji (Koji o Iku No. 5). Tokyo: Shogakkan.
copyright (2002) S. Kathleen Kitao and Kenji Kitao
Note: This work was partially funded by the Doshisha University Computer Research Fund, 2002.
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