Nara Deer Park Japan - Four Worn Soles

Nara Deer Park in Japan is a perfect way to spend the day. Strolling through the trees and checking out all the temples and shrines.

Getting here

This beautiful park is about a 20min walk from JR Nara station. At the entrance is a big lake, keep an eye out for the turtles that live there.

Also at the entrance you come across some temples.

Entering the Park

As you walk past the temples and enter the park you see straight away hundreds of wild deer grazing on the grass and sleeping under trees.

There are people selling biscuits that you can feed the deer with. Some of the deer will actually approach you and bow for a biscuit.

Haha it’s so cool. I found myself just constantly bowing to the deer that approached me.

But be careful as some of the deer get a bit aggressive. They try and take all the biscuits from you and will start biting at your clothes. Or they might even kick you! Worst case scenario – even steal old ladies handbags as the sign indicates.

Makes you wonder, how many old ladies hand bags were stolen from these ruthless forest deer gangs? Before they had to make a sign to warn everyone to pay their biscuit toll or deal with the consequences…

Once the novelty of bowing and feeding the deer wore off it was time to explore the park, covered in deer saliva haha.

More than just deer here

We came across the Nara museum. But as it was a public holiday, the place was packed! Instead we got an ice-cream and chilled by the pond.

I’m not sure how this deer got on this little island. But he was just chilling there.

We head over to the Todaiji temple which is home to a giant Buddha.

Once again the line was huge so we didn’t enter the temple. Just chilled and had a beer out side and hung out with the deer.

From there we took a stroll through the forest heading to Kasuga-taisha.

At the entrance there is a deer statue fountain.

Along the way there are so many lanterns. Deer hang out in between the lanterns in hope for a biscuit from passers by.

Nara Deer in between lanterns — *Biscuits or the bag lady your choice..*

Kasuga-taisha shinto shrine is just beautiful. The shrine is painted red and it makes this place look amazing with all the green trees that surround it.

Kasuga-taisha shinto shrine near Nara Deer Park

It is a great place to just relax and take it all in.

After exploring this place we made our way back to the main street for some dinner.

On our way back we passed by some more shrines and temples.

Then chilled out at another temple to watch the sunset over Nara. It was breath taking!

So if you ever visit Japan and are staying in Osaka, it is definitely worth the JR train ride out to Nara Deer park for a cheap and amazing day out! You won’t be disappointed 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! Happy travels 👍

Japan has heaps of other cool things to see and do. Here is some of our other posts –