# Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel - [Chogosonshi-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/chogosonshi-ji): Nara, Temple. A sprawling temple on Mount Shigi in Heguri, given over to Bishamonten and to tigers: legend says Prince Shotoku met the god here in the year, day and hour of the tiger. A 6-metre tiger with a swinging head waits near the entrance, the main hall's wooden stage looks out over the Nara basin, and the treasure hall shows copies of the 12th-century Shigisan Engi scrolls. The grounds are free, and the bus from Oji takes about 22 minutes. - [Okadera](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/okadera): Nara, Temple. A temple on the slope of Mount Oka in Asuka, formally Ryugai-ji, that calls itself Japan's first temple for warding off bad luck. Its main image is a seated Nyoirin Kannon 4.85 metres tall, made in the Nara period and, by the temple's account, the largest clay Buddhist statue in Japan. Spring brings about 3,000 rhododendrons and, over Golden Week, dahlias floating in the pond and the hand-washing basin. The approach is uphill, and the nearest station by name is the wrong one. - [Abe Monju-in](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/abe-monju-in): Nara, Temple. A temple of the Abe clan south of Sakurai Station. The main hall holds a group of five National Treasures by Kaikei, led by a Monju bodhisattva on a lion about 7 m tall and dated 1203. Temple tradition says the onmyoji Abe no Seimei was born here. The grounds, a 7th-century stone tomb you can step into, and the seasonal flower plots are free; the halls cost 700 yen each, or 1,200 yen for both. - [Tenkawa Daibenzaiten Shrine](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/tenkawa-daibenzaiten-shrine): Nara, Shrine. A shrine to Benzaiten, goddess of water, eloquence and the performing arts, in the village of Tenkawa in the Omine mountains. Musicians and actors make the trip, and Noh is performed here three times a year. It holds 30 Noh masks that are Important Cultural Properties. Getting here takes about an hour by a bus that runs only three times a day from Kintetsu Shimoichiguchi Station. - [Yagyu](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/yagyu): Nara, Historic site. A farming village in the hills east of Nara city that produced the Yagyu clan, sword instructors to three Tokugawa shoguns. You can see the family temple Hotoku-ji with more than 80 Yagyu graves, a chief retainer's house on tall stone walls, and the Ittoseki, a boulder about 7 m across split clean in two, which legend says Yagyu Sekishusai cut while fighting a tengu. The catch is the bus: about seven a day from Nara. - [Yata-dera](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/yata-dera): Nara, Temple. Properly Kongosen-ji, a temple halfway up Yatasan in the Yata hills west of Yamato-Koriyama, known locally as Yata no Jizo-san. In June it is the hydrangea temple: about 10,000 plants of some 60 kinds flower on the slope and a 700 yen fee applies. The rest of the year it is free and quiet, but direct buses run only four or five times a day. - [Jiko-in](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/jiko-in): Nara, Temple. A small Zen temple in Yamato-Koriyama built in 1663 by the tea master and local lord Katagiri Sekishu, laid out as one long tea gathering from the gate to the tea rooms. The 1,000 yen entry includes a bowl of matcha in the thatched shoin, looking over a clipped garden toward the Yamato basin. The view now takes in a fair amount of suburb, and it is cash only. - [Dorogawa Onsen](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/dorogawa-onsen): Nara, Onsen. A street of old wooden inns at about 820 meters in the Omine mountains, built to lodge pilgrims heading up Sanjo-ga-take, a peak that still bars women. There is no train: the last leg is a bus of about 70 minutes from Kintetsu Shimoichiguchi Station, with only a handful of departures a day. - [Mount Katsuragi](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/mount-katsuragi): Nara, Mountain. A 959 m mountain on the Nara-Osaka border above Gose, with a wide grassy summit plateau that turns red with azaleas around mid-May. The Kintetsu ropeway climbs in about 6 minutes (1,500 yen return), then it is a 15-minute walk. May weekends mean long queues and a full car park; the susuki grass season in autumn is much quieter. - [Yamanobe-no-michi](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/yamanobe-no-michi): Nara, Trail. A walking route along the western foot of the hills east of the Nara basin, often called Japan's oldest road and named in the Kojiki. The usual stretch runs about 16 km from Tenri Station past Isonokami Shrine, Chogaku-ji and the big imperial tombs to Omiwa Shrine and Sakurai Station, with only about 75 m of height difference. Allow most of a day. JR stations below the route let you stop early. - [Hannya-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/hannya-ji): Nara, Temple. A temple on the hill north of Todai-ji, known in Nara as the cosmos temple: about 150,000 cosmos of some 30 varieties bloom among its stone Buddhas in October. Behind the flowers is a 1253 stone pagoda and a National Treasure gate. It is a 12-minute bus ride from central Nara, cash only, and busy on autumn weekends. - [Kashihara Jingu](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/kashihara-jingu): Nara, Shrine. A shrine to Emperor Jimmu, the legendary first emperor, built in 1890 at the foot of Mount Unebi where the Nihon Shoki places his enthronement. The main hall was moved here from the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and most of the huge gravel grounds were laid out by volunteer labour for the 1940 celebrations. Free to enter, 10 minutes on foot from Kashiharajingu-mae Station. - [Enjo-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/enjo-ji): Nara, Temple. A temple in Ninnikusen, in the hills east of Nara city on the old Yagyu road, with a late Heian pond garden and a seated Dainichi Nyorai that Unkei signed in 1176, probably in his twenties. It is his earliest known signed work and a National Treasure. Getting there means a Nara Kotsu bus that runs only about seven times a day. - [Gojo Shinmachi](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/gojo-shinmachi): Nara, Neighborhood. About 750 m of white-plastered merchant houses along the old Kishu Kaido on the north bank of the Yoshino River in Gojo. The Kuriyama house here, dated 1607, is said to be the oldest house in Japan with a known building year; it is a private home, seen from the street. Two small heritage houses are free to enter. Quiet, with few shops and little English; about 10 minutes on foot from JR Gojo Station. - [Shin-Yakushi-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/shin-yakushi-ji): Nara, Temple. A small temple in the Takabatake district, south of Kasuga Taisha, with one Nara-period hall and one reason to come: twelve nearly life-size clay generals from the 8th century, standing in a ring around a seated healing Buddha. It is a 10 to 15 minute uphill walk from the nearest bus stop. Page 4 of 6. Previous page: https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations.md?page=3&prefecture_id=29 Next page: https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations.md?page=5&prefecture_id=29 --- Source: [Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations?page=4&prefecture_id=29) Last updated: 2026-11-06