Giant Buddha, Deer, Shrines, Burial Mound, and Sake
This tour of Nara and the Nara Valley comes with a number of legends – stories of troublesome monks, helpful gods, and a sad love story. You’ll be visiting the places where these legends happened and taking a step far back in time. There’s a lot of history here.
* No payment required at this time. Osaka Day Tours will soon contact you and confirm tour date availability. If your chosen date is available, you will be able to lock in your tour at that time.
Tour Time: 9:00-17:00 (8-hour tour) or 8:30-18:30 (10-hour tour)
Tour Guide: Kevin Riley
Included: All transportation, entry fees, lunch, and pickup & dropoff at your accommodation or cruise ship.
Standard Nara Legends Tour
- Feed the deer (if you’re brave) and have them bow courteously to you in Nara Park. I’ll show you the trick to stop them from going gangster.
- Cross through the massive gate, with its fierce guardians, to enter the world’s largest wooden temple that houses the world’s largest bronze Buddha. Go around the back for a surprising revelation.
- Ensure your future enlightenment by sliding through the Buddha hole.
- Discover how this temple forced the relocation of Japan’s capital to Kyoto – over 1200 years ago.
- Walk up through the beautiful lantern-lined path to Kasuga Shrine, set in a primeval forest of cedar trees. Wonder at the gigantic old cedar in the shrine grounds and enjoy the beauty of the lantern room.
- Discover the reason for the abundance of deer in Nara and why they are considered sacred.
- Enjoy a scenic drive through farmlands and small villages in the Japanese countryside, to an ancient burial mound where a 3rd-century princess was laid to rest after a love affair with a Shinto god went wrong.
- Pass through the unique torii gate at one of Japan’s oldest existing Shinto shrines, where sake brewers from all over the country come to pray for a good brew.
- Sip some of the sacred spring water, found at a smaller back shrine, that is believed to cure illness.
- Visit the oldest sake brewery in the region, which has been brewing sake for over 350 years.
* No payment required at this time. Osaka Day Tours will soon contact you and confirm tour date availability. If your chosen date is available, you will be able to lock in your tour at that time.