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Nara

54 places

• Aeon Mall Kashihara (イオンモール橿原) Opened on 1 April 2004, it now has 243 shops: among the largest in western Japan.
• Daimokutate at Yahashira Jinja (八柱神社 題目立) On 12 October seventeen-year-olds recite three war stories: a UNESCO-listed rite since 2009.
• Dorogawa Onsen Its Gorogoro-mizu spring has been among Japan's 100 best waters since 1985.
• Former Nara Prison Museum Dating from 1908, on a Haviland radial plan: the only survivor of the five Meiji prisons.
• Gangō-ji The roof tiles were made in Korea over 1,400 years ago and brought to Nara in 718.
• Gojō Shinmachi Founded in 1608, at the wish of a daimyo, around Futami Castle.
• Harushika Brewery — Imanishi Seibei Shōten (春鹿醸造元 今西清兵衛商店) It has been making sake since 1884: 700 yen to taste five different labels.
• Higashibōjō Hōran'ya On 15 August the bearers of Higashibōjō go round the shrine with torches of up to 3 metres in height, 2 in diameter and 500 kilos, shouting…
• Higashimuki Shopping Street The name means ‘facing east’: Kōfuku-ji stood there, and the houses were built facing it.
• Hōryū-ji Relics of the Buddha are kept beneath the central pillar of the pagoda.
• Imai-cho (今井町) A merchant district of Kashihara preserved from the Edo period, a protected area of traditional architecture.
• Ishibutai Tumulus Its stones weigh 2,300 tonnes in total: the capstone alone, 77.
• Isuien The rear garden frames the Nandaimon of Tōdai-ji and Mount Wakakusa as its backdrop.
• Jikō-in Garden The daimyo Katagiri Sekishū built it in 1663 and founded his own school of tea there.
• Kameishi The Kame-ishi measures 3.6x2.1x1.8 m: the face carved underneath has an unknown purpose.
• Kasuga Taisha Shrine Three thousand lanterns stay unlit all year and are lit on two evenings: 14 and 15 August.
• Kinpusen-ji Headquarters of the mountain ascetic discipline, with retreats on Mount Ōmine.
• Kōfuku-ji The five-storey pagoda is under scaffolding until 2034: its first restoration in 120 years.
• Kōriyama Castle Three concentric moats surround the castle, now among about 600 Somei Yoshino cherry trees.
• Mi・Nara (ミ・ナーラ) The 4th floor houses a goldfish aquarium, the pride of western Japan.
• Mitarai Valley A suspension bridge gives a view from above of the stream's waterfalls, on a 2 hr 30 min route.
• Mochiidono Shopping Street More than a hundred shops on a street three metres wide and about three hundred long.
• Mount Yoshino (吉野山) 30,000 cherry trees on 4 levels over 8 km: they bloom in stages, from the valley floor to the summit.
• Murō-ji In 1998 a 50-metre cedar, brought down by a typhoon, bent the roof of the pagoda.
• Nakatanidō (中谷堂) Since 1992 it has been pounding hot mochi with bare hands in a few seconds: 200 yen a piece.
• Nanto Bank historic head office At the base of the four Ionic columns there are sculptures of sheep, a symbol of wealth.
• Nara Machi Yokocho (なら街横丁) Ten eateries under one roof since 2013, shared tables until midnight.
• Nara National Museum Founded in 1895, it displays about a hundred Buddhist statues from the Asuka to the Kamakura period.
• Nara Prefectural Government Building Completed in 1965 to a design by Katsuya Katayama, it has a 360-degree viewing terrace open to the public, from which you can see Mount…
• Nara sumi ink In Nara ten companies make 700,000 ink sticks a year: 95% of Japan's total.
• Nara-zarashi linen workshop (麻布おかい) In the workshop opened in 1863, 奈良晒 is still woven by hand: an hour at the loom costs 1,980 yen and you take the cloth you weave home.
• Naramachi Under the eaves hangs a small stuffed monkey that is believed to absorb other people's misfortunes.
• Ōdaigahara Hidegatake peak, 1,695 m, lies in the area said to be the rainiest in Japan.
• Ōmiwa Jinja It has no hall of worship: you pray towards Mount Miwa through a triple torii.
• Shōryaku-ji Every January seven sake breweries from the prefecture come here to collect the yeast starter.
• Takamatsuzuka Tumulus Discovered on 21 March 1972, the frescoes were already national news five days later.
• Takatori Castle 390 metres from the base to the keep: the highest mountain castle in Japan.
• Tamaki Jinja (玉置神社) The sacred cedar is 3,000 years old: you get there by taxi from Totsukawa Onsen, then 15 min on foot.
• Tanzan Jinja It houses the only thirteen-storey wooden pagoda still in existence in the world.
• The deer of Nara The deer bow less for crackers: from 10.2 to 6.4 times during the pandemic.
• Tōdai-ji In the pillar there is a hole 30 by 37 cm: the size of one of the Buddha's nostrils.
• Tōdai-ji Nigatsu-dō (Omizutori) From 1 to 13 March, ten torches 6–8 metres long and weighing 40 kg go up onto the balcony at 19:00.
• Tonzurumine Underground Shelter In 1944, in about two months, three hundred workers dug two kilometres that were never finished.
• Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺) Founded in 759 by Ganjin: his statue from 763 can be seen only on 5–7 June.
• Totsukawa no Odori at Obara (十津川の大踊) On 13 August Obara dances as it did in the seventeenth century: UNESCO heritage since 2022.
• Totsukawa Onsen – Yusenchi Totsukawa, in 2004 the first municipality in Japan to declare all its springs ‘source-only’, brings the water up here at 60°C with pH 9.1.
• Uda-Matsuyama Castle town of the Akiyama clan, designated a protected district on 5 July 2006.
• Uneme-jinja (Uneme Matsuri) Its entrance gate faces the shore, not the pond in front of it.
• Wakakusayama (Wakakusa Yamayaki) Fire was banned by law in 1738, but the ‘spontaneous’ fires went on all the same.
• Yagyū Ittōseki and Amanoiwatate Shrine (柳生一刀石・天石立神社) A granite boulder measuring 8×7×2 m, split in two by a diagonal crack, about a hundred metres beyond the shrine, at the far end of the…
• Yagyu Masakizaka Kenzen Dojo (柳生正木坂剣禅道場) A historic kendo and Zen dojo in Yagyū, Nara, founded in 1965 on the site where Yagyū Jūbei trained about ten thousand pupils.
• Yakushi-ji Its roofs make it look six storeys high, but inside it is a pagoda of only three storeys.
• Yata-dera (the hydrangea temple) The ten thousand hydrangeas are shaped like the jewel that the statue of Jizō holds in its hand.
• Yoshino kudzu — Tengyokudo It has been processing Yoshino kudzu since 1870: today it has seven outlets in the prefecture.

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