Nara Prefecture (奈良県)

Nara Prefecture (奈良県) is a prefecture in the Kansai Region, on the island of Honshu in Japan. It is 3,691 sq km, placing it in 40th position in terms of size among the prefectures of the country.

Murouji Niomon, Nara Prefecture


Nara Prefecture is bordered by Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the west, Wakayama Prefecture to the south and Mie Prefecture to the east. It is located in the middle of the Kii Peninsula. As the prefecture is mountainous, it only has inhabitable area totalling 851 sq km, the smallest of any prefectures in Japan. Within Nara Prefecture is Mount Hokkyo, which at 1,915 m is the tallest mountain in the Kansai Region.

Nara Prefecture has a population of 1.4 million, and is the 29th most populous prefecture. Its capital and biggest city is Nara, which serves as the site of several ancient capitals of Japan, including Asuka-kyo, Fujiwara-kyo and Heijo-kyo.

Isuien and Nandaimon, Nara

Going to Nara Prefecture

By Plane
The Kansai International Airport offers the best connection if you are flying in from overseas. Otherwise Osaka's Itami Airport offers numerous domestic flights. From Kansai Airport, you can taka a limousine bus to Nara train station. It leaves every hour, costs ¥1,800 and takes 1 1/2 hours. From Itami airport, the limousine buses cost ¥1,440 and takes an hour.

By Train
To reach Nara, you can first take the train to Kyoto and from there change to the JR Nara Line of the private Kintetsu Kyoto Line. Of the two, the latter is better suited. There are two trains per hour for the 35-minute journey.

Cherry blossoms in Nara Park

Cities of Nara Prefecture

Tourist Attractions of Nara Prefecture

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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