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City transport
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The centre of Nara is small enough to be covered on foot, though you'll need to use local
buses
for some of the more far-flung sights. The main termini are outside the JR and Kintetsu-Nara train stations. Nearly all the timetables and route maps are in Japanese, but the one-sheet "Nara Sightseeing Map", available at the tourist offices, has a summary of the most useful routes. The standard fare is A?180 within the city centre, which you usually pay as you get on, though buses going out of central Nara employ a ticket system - take a numbered ticket as you board and pay the appropriate fare on exit. If you're heading for the sights around Nara, there are a range of bus passes, of which the most helpful is the
Nara Nishinokyo Ikaruga Furii-ken
(A?1600). This covers unlimited travel for one day in central Nara and the western districts, including Horyu-ji, Yakushi-ji and Toshodai-ji. A cheaper version, which excludes Horyu-ji, is available for A?810. You can buy both these passes in the Nara Kotsu bus office (daily 8.30am-6pm) across Omiya-dori from the Kintetsu train station.
Nara Kotsu (tel 0742/22-5263) runs a number of bus tours where you'll be given a cassette recorder with taped information in English. Again, the tours covering the surrounding sights are most useful: a full day-trip round the Nishinokyo and Ikaruga areas, for example, costs A?6660. JTB's Sunrise Tours (tel 075/341-1413) also offers half-day excursions to Nara from Kyoto and Osaka. They're accompanied by an English-speaking guide, but only cover Todai-ji and Kasuga Taisha.
Another option for central Nara is
bike rental
. You'll find Eki Rent-a-cycle (daily 9am-5pm; A?1000 per day) outside the JR Station, and Sunflower Rent-a-cycle (daily 9am-5pm; A?1000-1200 per day, or A?2000 for two days) southeast of the Kintetsu Station. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Japan,
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