Japan · A day from Kyoto or Osaka
Japan's first permanent capital, Nara is where the country's grand Buddhist culture first took root, and a single easy train ride south of Kyoto or Osaka delivers you straight into it. The great temples here are older and, in places, even larger than anything in Kyoto, set within a vast deer park that feels almost mythic.
At the heart of it all stands Todai-ji, whose Great Buddha Hall shelters one of the largest bronze Buddhas on earth beneath a soaring wooden roof. Wander on to Kasuga Taisha, a vermilion shrine half-hidden in the forest and lined with thousands of stone and bronze lanterns, then slow down in the lattice-house lanes of Naramachi, the old merchant quarter now full of cafes and craft shops.
And then there are the deer. More than a thousand of them roam freely through the park, considered messengers of the gods, and many have learned to bow their heads for a cracker. It is the kind of gentle, slightly surreal encounter that makes Nara linger in the memory long after you have gone home.
