Nara’s “deer cookie” rice crackers get their first price increase in 28 years
Makers of iconic tourism treat cite rising costs and sales tax hike as reasons. Mention the town of Nara to many people in Japan, and the first thing they’ll think of isn’t one of the city’s historical...
View ArticleJapan Travel: Explore a hidden cave on a tiny monorail roller coaster thrill...
Step away from the mainstream and discover the mysterious side of Japan. Over the years, our Japanese-language reporters have been travelling around the country, exploring hidden gems off the well-worn...
View ArticleJapan Travel: Explore a mysterious hidden octagonal tunnel in the mountains...
Come with us as we take you off the beaten path to a spot tourists are yet to discover. While most people who visit Japan journey along the well-beaten path between Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, there’s a...
View ArticleJapanese hotel that hosted last four emperors offering rooms for fraction of...
The Nara Hotel offers royal-class hospitality, but right now you won’t have to pay a king’s ransom to experience it. As you can probably imagine, when Japan’s royal family travels, it travels in style,...
View ArticleThis captivating autumnal image looks like something out of a Japanese fairytale
Twitter is alight with delight over this stunning shot of a kimono-clad girl and her dainty deer friend. The power of skillful photography is such that you can be struck breathless by a city scene from...
View Article“Ugly” mascot Sento-kun finds new popularity 12 years after debut
Savvy business practices helped the once-unsettling chimera win over hearts in the end. Although not as prominent as its neighbor Kyoto, Nara is a hotbed of Japanese history, dating back even farther...
View ArticleNara City apologises after employee jumps from platform to platform across...
Dangerous stunt by Japanese civil servant gets slammed online. Japanese train stations are known for being clean and well-designed, efficiently moving millions of passengers from A to B each and every...
View ArticleKyoto tourist crowds disappearing due to coronavirus outbreak, creating...
Local shopkeeper says drop in tourist traffic is most dramatic in over 30 years. There’s a bit of a paradox with Kyoto. Pretty much anyone who has even a passing interest in Japan wants to take a trip...
View ArticleShikayose: The Calling of the Deer in Nara with acorns and a French horn
With thousands less tourists in Nara due to the Coronavirus, this year’s winter celebrations seem strangely more magical. Located right by the big tourist hubs of Kyoto and Osaka, Nara is a popular...
View ArticleKyoto starts new “Empty” tourism campaign to attract tourists during...
Visitors to Kyoto have plummeted, prompting a new series of ads showing sites like the Arashiyama bamboo forest totally devoid of people. Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto is one of the country’s...
View ArticleNara deer leave park, head to station for food as tourist numbers tumble due...
Videos show herds of deer galloping down streets and stopping traffic as they search for food. Easily accessible as a day-trip from the big tourist hubs of Kyoto and Osaka, Nara is one of the most...
View ArticleEat a mountain of chicken katsu at this restaurant in Nara【Photos】
If you’re into eating challenges, this is one you won’t want to miss out on. Japan’s Nara prefecture is generally known for its many temples and deer, but it also has more than a few good places to...
View ArticleWith foreign visitor numbers to Nara Park plummeting, are the city’s deer in...
Pretty much everyone who visits Nara stops by the park to feed crackers to the deer, so are the smaller crowds leaving them hungry? Tourism numbers are down across Japan since the start of the...
View ArticleAs American as Nara apple pie? We try the U.S.’s best small town pies without...
Julian Pie Company gives our Japanese sweets fan her first taste of America’s signature dessert. While Kyoto is Japan’s old capital, the city of Nara is Japan’s OLD capital. That’s because Nara’s...
View ArticleSakura cherry blossoms float on breeze, land on Nara deer in perfect hanami...
Heavenly hanami landscape plays out like a scene from a Ghibli anime film. If you’re looking for the best place to view sakura cherry blossoms in Japan, you’ll see a lot of guides recommending popular...
View ArticleThe poo from Nara Park’s deer is changing because of the coronavirus pandemic
Shape and hardness of animals’ droppings has changed noticeably since a few months ago. The city of Nara’s most popular tourist attraction is Nara Park, but not necessarily because of the foliage or...
View ArticleNara deer heading farther outside park during the coronavirus outbreak, but...
The animals are the symbol of the city, but our local reporter is worried they might be migrating away. Pretty much everyone who goes to Nara Park is there to see one thing: deer. Considered messengers...
View ArticleDeer in Nara Park outnumber visitors, display baffling summer gathering...
Nara deer act mysteriously, even though there are fewer of them around than last year. The city of Nara in Nara prefecture is synonymous with shika (deer), who freely roam the streets and bow to...
View ArticleWanna win a Nintendo Switch? You can with this gigantic gacha capsule machine...
We try our luck and get pleasantly surprised. From portable bidets to miniature calligraphy sets, gacha capsules typically hold fun, tiny trinkets to take home. But for one gacha capsule machine in...
View ArticleNara police on the lookout for man who peed his pants
Authorities fear he may do it again. In the afternoon of 30 August some little girls were playing in a park in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, when suddenly a man appeared. He asked the girls “Where is a...
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