Nara is located about 40km south from Kyoto and 30km east from Osaka.
It is an older capital than Kyoto and as old as Osaka.
It was about 1300 years ago.
There are ancient temples. Most of them are older than Kyoto and are not Zen temple.
Nara is quieter than Kyoto and Osaka.
More than one thousand friendly deer live with Nara citizens.
And also Nara has a lot of local food like Sushi, Ramen and so on.
You would be able to have unique experience.
This itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Send me a message with your requests!
Meeting Point
At the lobby in your Hotel in Kyoto city or Osaka city
Meet at the lobby of your hotel in Kyoto or Osaka
Kasuga-Taisha Shrine
It is a central Shinto shrine of Kasuga-shrines which are there about 1000 branches in Japan.
Three deities were enshrined to protect Nara from evils. And the forest in the shrine has not been touched by human for more than 1000 years. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Lunch
Todai-ji temple(The Great Buddha)
Todai-ji is also famous for the "Big Buddha statue". It is 14.7 meters height bronze statue.
The statue is kept in Great Buddha Hall, the main building whose height is about 50 meters.
About 1300 years ago, the temple and statue were built for playing to stop natural disaster, famine, the pandemic and so on. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Koufuku-ji temple
Koufuku-ji is a Buddhist temple and tutelary temple of Fujiwara clan. Fujiwara clan had been the most influential power over imperial government in ancient Japan. Kamatari Fujiwara implemented Taika Reform which built the basis of ancient Japanese central government.
It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Nara-machi
Nara-machi is an area where is southern from national road 369.
It has old town scape with narrow road. There are many traditional style houses which are Japanese cuisine restaurant, tea room, traditional goods shop and so on.
Return to your hotel in Kyoto or Osaka
Ending Point
Your Hotel in Kyoto city or Osaka city
This tour can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Click below to send me a message with your requests.
Guide fee,
Hotel pick-up fee in Kyoto city or Osaka city
Transportation fee between guide's house and your hotel in Kyoto or Osaka.
Transportation fee(you and guide) during this tour.
Lunch, dinner, entrance fee(you and guide),
Entrance fees are 600yen for Todai-ji, 500yen for Kasuga-taisha, 700yen for Koufuku-ji.
We will walk long (more than 5km). So you should wear walking shoes.
I can guide you from Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Nara if you pay the pick up fee.
Please ask the fee.
Hi! I'm Yoshiharu. Please call me Yoshi. Yoshi means "good" in Japanese! I'm a good man (^^);;;.
I was born in Kyoto but I lived there 3 months. Then my family moved to Osaka and I grew up in Osaka.
So I am almost Osakan.
When I was young, my hobby was traveling by bicycle. I went cycling around most part of Japan except Shikoku.
In my family rule, Shikoku is in bad direction because my grand father died just after his Shikoku pilgrimage.
So I want to have a cycling tour not only in Kyoto (coming soon!) but also all part of Japan someday.
I am interested in Japanese history.
I am a National Certificated Guide. And I have "Kyoto Tourism Culture Certification 3rd grade", "Osaka Expert Certification 3rd grade", "Nara Concierge 2nd grade" and "Karuizawa Web test 3rd grade".
So I have expert knowledge about Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Karuizawa and common knowledge about Kobe.
Besides I like gadgets, so I can guide you DenDen town in Osaka.
When you have a chance to visit Kyoto or Osaka or other city in this area,
please contact me anytime and join my tour!
I'll be looking forward to seeing you, spending wonderful time with you.
Rob J.
“Highly recommended!!”
We had a wonderful day out with Yoshiharu, and highly recommend him as a tour guide!! He was friendly, efficient, and a pleasure to be with, as he took us out to Kyoto's Bamboo Forest and the temples around Sagano. This was the best day we've had in Japan so far, by far. Some beautiful things to see, a great lunch out and great company, in Yoshi. Thank you. Rob & Kim
Christine D.
“Excellent nara experience with Yoshi”
Very knowledgeable and personable. We all 4 enjoyed this tour. Highly recommend.
Yoshiharu K.
Dear Christine Thank you for your evaluation. It was comfortable day which helped us to have a good traveling. I hope you will have good traveling to Hiroshima and Kyoto. Yours sincerely, Yoshi
Alexa S.
“Disappointing tour with not much value. Do not recommend. ”
Yoshi was a nice person; however it was a very disappointing tour for the high price we paid for a private tour. We have done other tours with GoWithGuide and we would not recommend this tour at all. It is better you go without guide than this tour. The guide was not very prepared nor knowledgeable of the area, or Himeji castle, and did not provide much explanation. He seemed to be there mainly to chaperone us through public transport, which we’re able to do without a guide and even then he did not seem knowledgeable. Perhaps he is not experienced with tours in Himeji. Mainly pointed to the signs to read and even then was reading them with us as if it were his first time going. We felt this was completely overpriced and did not get much out of it.
Yoshiharu K.
Dear Alexa I am sorry you could not enjoy the tour. On the tour day(It was in the Golden Week) Himeji castle was very crowded . But I had expected it, so before the tour I bought the web ticket for the first time. We could skip an about 100m line to buy the ticket. But it was not enough. There was a long waiting line to enter the keep. We had to wait about 1 hour. I have never had the experience. And in the keep we were packed on every floor and the number of people to get the top floor was limited so we had to wait for about 30 min to get the top. I have never had the experience. So I guess number of explanation per time was few because we could not move in the line and maybe I skipped explanations by the crowd or forgot to explain because of lacking the rhythm to explain. And we could not have the seat together when we went to Himeji, so I could not have time to explain Himeji and you missed the chance to have question for it. I should have stand beside you to explain the Himeji and scenery from the train. And we were late to return your hotel about 1.5 hours. I guess we should have skip Azuki museum. I should have give questions to know what you expected to Himeji. Next time I will guide you according to your interest in Hemeji. Himeji has other destinations.
$277/ per group