[Japan] Half Day Trip from Osaka to Nara

Every time I travel, I always like to explore new places. Just like the last trip to Japan, I visited a city which located not far from Osaka (where I stayed), and could be easily reach by train. You might be familiar with this city, because it always be a must visit place at Kansai area, it's Nara.

In front of Kintetsu - Nara station

Nara is a city which located just 1 hour away from Osaka and Kyoto, by train ride. This city is popular with its park, where you can play with hundreds of deer. It's a good place if you want to have interactions with these animals. Unlike at the zoo where you only can see from far, at Nara,  all deers live wildly and you even can found them walk at the pedestrian street from Kintetsu Nara station to Nara Park. So not just for take pictures, but you also can play with them and feed them. There are several food stall selling deer crackers to feed the deers. It costs ¥150 for a pack of crackers But be careful, the deers can "smell" every food and they are very agressive with it. You need to hide it, or all deers will "attack" you. Not just with their food, but also our food. When I was there, I left a half cup of yoghurt at the stroller to take picture with some deers. Suddenly the other deer came and ate the rest of yoghurt from the cup.

a food stall selling deer crackers for ¥150

I was trying to feed deers while the other hand carried Winston because he was too afraid to walk among deers.

Kofukuji Five Storied Pagoda , Nara

After played with deers, I turned to Kofukuji Five Storied Pagoda. It's not as crowded as at the park, but still there are some deers around the temple. For me it's a nice place to take pictures with deer with temple as a background. It only took around 1 hour to explore this area, and we walked to the next place which is known as a shopping and food street at Nara, Sanjo Dori street.

Deer and temple at Nara

a pond at Sanjo Dori street

I knew about this street when I was looking for the famous handmade mochi, Nakatanidou. If you ever seen a video of 2 men make mochi by keep hitting the dough, this is the place. You can spot this place easily because they always have a crowd. When in Nara, it's a mandatory to try this famous mochi. Well, since it's a fresh - handmade mochi, the outside part was really soft and not too chewy. It's the best mochi dough I ever tried. However, the filling was quite bland, and not sweet at all.

The famous mochi in Nara : Nakatanidou

Nara is not as crowded as in other big cities such as Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo. It was very quite, even at its shopping street. However, Nara has their own charm and you might consider to visit this city when you're in Kansai.  Even though half day is enough to exploring this place, but if you have more time you can go further and see other beautiful places in Nara such as Kasuga-Taisha Shrine, Todaiji Temple, and also Ukimi-do Hall.

a quite train in Japan