9. Nara Walk

The Ancient Capital with Dignified Great Buddha

Looking for a self-guided walking tour of Nara, I found this one Practical Travel Guide 507 - Nara Walk and printed it. While it is good, I find the map hard to understand. I couldn't differentiate between where the park started and the streets ended.

Next, I read this one Nara. Recommended Course which seems brilliant in its simplicity. It also comes with a Map! Below are the walk details.

Start
JR Nara Station - 10-min. walk
1. Kintetsu Nara Station - 4 min. walk
2. Kofukuji Temple - 5 min. walk
3. Yoshikien Garden - 2 min. walk
4. Isuien Garden - 5 min. walk
5. Nara National Museum - 3 min walk
6. Himuro Jinja Shrine - 8 min walk
7. Todaiji Temple - 8 min. walk
8. Nigatsudo Hall - 5 min. walk
9. Sangatsudo Hall - 2 min. walk
10. Tamukeyama Hachimangu Shrine - 5 min. walk
11. Wakakusayama Hill - 10 min. walk
12. JR Nara Station

Please note: The walking times given above are incorrect. I used google maps to plot the walk below with walking times and distances. There is no need to walk from JR Nara Station to Kintetsu Nara Station, it saves time to head straight to Kofuku- ji Temple.

When comparing it (the above) to the map in the LP guide, there are a number of sights which hold less interest for me - call me a philistine if you will, but I'd rather just see the "main" sights. My walk looks like this:

Start
JR Nara Station -  16 min walk 1.4 km
1. Kofuku- ji Temple - 8 min walk, 650 m
2. Yoshikien Garden - 2 min. walk, 120 m ?
3. Isuien Garden (650 yen) - 9 min walk, 750 m
4. Todaiji Temple & Daibutsu-den Hall (500 yen) - 6 min walk, 450 m
6. Nigatsudo Hall - 11 min. walk (900 m)
7. Tea/coffee break stop at Mizutani-chaya - 5 min walk, 400 m
8. Kasuga Taisha - 35 min walk, 2.9 m
10. JR Nara Station

Walking time for the above is 92 min - 1 hour 32 mins.  (7.57 kms) - that's an awful lot of walking! Between Nigatsudo Hall and Kasuga Taisha, is a lovely little teahouse called Mizutani-chaya where I'll stop for a cup of tea. (Alas, I doubt they run to cappuccino.) Their website is in Japanese and although I tried translating into English, only the top line is translated. It does look wonderfully atmospheric.

奈良市