Nara in Three UNESCO Sites: Kofuku-ji, Todai-ji and Kasuga Taisha

Three of Nara's UNESCO-listed sites sit within one long walk of each other, and this three-hour guided route links them in the order that makes historical sense. You begin at Kofuku-ji, the clan temple of the Fujiwara family, whose five-storey pagoda has stood as the skyline marker of the old capital for centuries. From there the walk crosses into Nara Park, then reaches Todai-ji and finishes at Kasuga Taisha, so the morning moves from aristocratic temple politics to state Buddhism to Shinto ritual without doubling back.

The centrepiece is the Daibutsu, the roughly fifteen-metre bronze Buddha dedicated in 752 CE when Nara, then called Heijo-kyo, was Japan's first permanent capital. The hall that shelters it, the Daibutsuden, was rebuilt in 1709 at about two-thirds the width of the original and is still among the largest wooden buildings anywhere. Kasuga Taisha, founded in 768 CE, closes the route on a completely different note: thousands of stone and bronze lanterns donated by worshippers over the centuries line its approach paths and hang from its eaves.

Between the sites you are in the company of Nara Park's wild sika deer, more than a thousand of them, treated as messengers of the deity Takemikazuchi and protected as a National Natural Treasure since 1957. They are genuinely wild animals rather than a petting zoo, and your guide will explain how to offer shika senbei crackers without being mobbed. The pace is walking pace throughout, on flat paths with a gentle climb up to Kasuga Taisha.