This beautiful temple complex is located just north of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and consists of various sub-temples, some of which are also open for exploring. The buildings here are incredible – far larger than almost any other temple. There are many Japanese maples trees here and photos taken in the fall are amazing. We definitely recommend visiting, especially since the crowds are far smaller at Tofuku-ji versus Fushimi Inari next door.
It’s free to enter the temple grounds, and 1000 yen for ticket that covers both the gardens, and a long bridge and some shrines.
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Tamba Sasayama is a town in Hyogo prefecture, west of Osaka. We took a day trip there to explore another town. It was fun to see another part of Japan and we definitely recommend Tamba Sasayama if you have extra time in/around Kyoto or Osaka. While there, we ate botan nabe (wild boar hot pot) which the town is known for, visited a samurai house, explored the castle, visited the local sake brewery/shop and explored the merchant street which has many preserved homes and stores. Boten nabe is served by a number of restaurants in Tamba Sasayama; there are several at the most central intersection where the bus drops you off in town (Nikaicho stop). Check the photos to see some obvious botan nabe restaurants… There are also a number of well-preserved samurai houses to the west of the castle grounds – two that you can visit are the Aoyama History Village and the Anma Family Samurai Residence. The houses show some of the furniture, gardens, clothing and art of the samurai from about 150 years ago. The castle was originally built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun who was based in Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). It was a strategically important location that helped defend against lords who were further west and and loyal to the Osaka shogun, Toyotomi Hideyori. The palace itself has burned down several times, most recently in 1945. But with extensive records and drawings, it was faithfully reproduced a few years later. You can explore various rooms in the palace, see some beautiful screens and see many suits of samurai armor. We also visited the Houmei Sake Brewery shop (Google map location of shop). Their sake was ok; they had some interesting blends, including a chestnut and sake drink. Finally, we walked along the Kawaramachi Tsumairi Merchant Housing District. This 3 block stretch had a number of interesting-looking shops – unfortunately, only a few were open, apparently because tourists haven’t really returned to Tamba Sasayama post-COVID.
It’s about 2 hours by train from Kyoto; there are several different trains that get you there (JR and locals), with a short bus ride from Sasayamaguchi station to the town, so use Google Maps/directions to identify the best route. We used Sasayama Castle Oshoin as our destination for mapping. At Sasayamaguchi station, there is also a tourist office with various brochures in English (to give you an idea of the paucity of foreign tourists – the tourist office folks wanted to give us English-language brochures but had to literally rip open sealed box after box to find brochures for us). At the first place we visited (Anma Family Samurai Residence), we bought a ticket for the 4 main attractions, the Anma Residence, Aoyama History Village, Sasayama Castle Oshoin and the Museum of History. The combo-ticket cost 600 yen.
Nara, less than an hour south of Kyoto by train, also served as the capital of Japan from 710 to 794, and has a number of temples, shrines and gardens to explore. In addition, Nara is famous for its deer – they wander around all the sites and even across streets, looking for food and rest spots. We visited Todai-ji, Isui-en garden, Yoshikien garden, Kasuga-taisha shrine and Nara Park.
Isui-en garden was lovely; there are several different areas to visit and some sections include borrowed landscapes. Borrowed landscapes means that temples and mountains nearby are part of the view, and it can be breathtaking. There is also a teahouse at Isui-en (Sanshutei) where you can have tea or amazake, as well as small lunch sets. We enjoyed amazake while looking out over the garden. We recommend visiting Isui-en first when you arrive at Nara, as the crowds tend to go straight to Todai-ji first, leaving Isui-en almost empty in the morning. Right next door to Isui-en is Yoshikien garden, a smaller but equally nice garden to visit.
From there we visited Todai-ji temple. Todai-ji is well-known for its 3 enormous buddha statues (inside the buddha hall). There are also various large metal sculptures (of lotuses and other items) inside the buddha hall.
Kasuga-taisha can be reached either by a 15 minute walk or a short bus ride from Todai-ji. It’s an inari shrine with many sub-shrines throughout the grounds. It’s a pleasant way to spend an hour or two as once you pass the main entrance, the crowds dissipate and you are mostly walking in the woods. Like other inari shrines, there are a lot of torii, as well as hundreds of metal, stone and wood lanterns.
You can pet and feed the deer all over town – many are in Nara Park but really you can find them almost anywhere you walk in or around the sights. Most deer are happy to let you pet them, though if they find out you don’t have food, they wander away. Deer food (crackers) cost 200 yen no matter where you go. Be aware that the deer can get pretty aggressive when you have the crackers, so be careful with kids feeding the deer. Sarah was nipped in the butt (more surprising than painful fortunately), and the deer will try to eat any paper or other dangling items you are holding.
Isui-en costs 1200 yen pp. This usually includes admission to the Neiraku Museum, located on site at the garden. When we visited the museum was closed for exhibit set-up. Yoshikien garden is free – note that there is a gate at the entrance to the garden so it might look like it’s closed. Just push the gate open to go inside the garden. For Todai-ji, you can pay to enter the buddha hall (600 yen) or both the museum and buddha hall (1000 yen). We did not go the museum, because we were kind of museum’ed out that day. Kasuga-taisha is free to enter.
Two train stations serve Nara, a JR station and a Kintetsu station. Most of the sites are more easily accessible via the Kintetsu station.
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Many posters warn about the deer
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