When you’re in the Kansai region, checking out the deer in Nara, Japan is something almost everyone wants to do. Thankfully, it’s easy to get to.

How long to stay?

Normally, we would spend some time talking about how long to stay and where we stayed in the city. In this case, we didn’t stay in Nara and instead left this as a daytrip from Osaka. And we would say there really isn’t enough that most tourists will find here to last them longer than just a couple of hours. Come here, check out the deer, and that works for most.

So, rather than talking about where and how long to stay, it’s perhaps better for us to discuss how to get here. Most tourists will be coming in from either Osaka or Kyoto.

• From Osaka: you’ll want to take the Kintetsu Nara line all the way to the Kintetsu-Nara stop. If you’re coming in from the metro area, the very first stop (Osaka-Namba) might be your connection point. On the rapid-service line, it will take 36 minutes.

• From Kyoto: odds are you’ll be coming in from Kyoto Station, which is the start of the Kintetsu Kyoto line. You’ll want to change at the Yamato-Saidaiji Station to the Kintetsu Nara line and go two more stops to the Kintetsu-Nara stop. Expect this to take about 46-50 minutes in total.

What we did in Nara, Japan

Visit the local deer by Nara Park

This is the thing to do when you’re in Nara. The best place to see them is at Nara Park (makes sense, right?). If you’re coming in by train, it’s a simple walk over to Nara Park. Once you’re there, it’ll become apparent very quickly that the deer are around.

Don’t bring your own food to feed the deer. Instead, there are vendors selling deer crackers specially formulated for their diet. They’re inexpensive but make sure you have cash. And, yes, the deer know where the food comes from and if you’ve bought some.

After you bought it, they will continue to follow you around until you hand over the goods. These deer will bow if you bow first, a useful skill to pick up in Japan. Just watch out for their antlers if you decide to bow.

Even if you have no food, you can get up close and personal with the deer. You could even get a chance to pet some if they’re calm enough. The youngest ones might look cute, but their moms might get aggressive as they protect their youth. We’ve always approached from the front and let them get familiar with us before moving to touch their backs.

This is the kind of wild animal exhibit that typically costs money elsewhere, but it’s free. We spent some good time with the deer.

Todai-ji Buddhist Temple

If you’ve visited other temples in Japan, you’re probably going to walk away from this one feeling like it didn’t stand out quite as much. But that’s not to say it’s not worth a walk around the premises. Sometimes it’s nice to have an opportunity to pay respects no matter where you are. And that’s certainly possible at Todai-ji.

We wouldn’t say it’s something that you should go out of your way to visit, but it’s close to Nara Park and a nice change of pace from seeing the deer.

Where we ate in Nara, Japan

Kitahara Soba

Nestled away by the Todai-ji Buddhist Temple is Kitahara Soba, an excellent restaurant serving soba (buckwheat) noodles. No reservations, but don’t be surprised to see a line. We came here for lunch, and thankfully beat the crowds.

You have your option of having cold or hot soba. We typically prefer our soba cold and our udon hot, but in this case, we opted for hot soba with a side of tempura. The soba broth was perfectly balanced and the noodles had the right amount of firmness. The tempura similarly was cooked to perfection.

They even served up a kids cold soba for Alex with some cute kid chopsticks. He similarly was in love with this meal. Cold soba remains one of his favorites to this day.

Have you visited the Nara deer yet?

Suggested reading:

• Other destinations we’ve visited
• Destination Spotlight: Osaka, Japan
• Destination Spotlight: Kyoto, Japan