Eastern Nara

While not as isolated as southern Nara or as urban as the Yamato Plain, eastern Nara offers conveniently located recreational opportunities. What this area lacks in onsen, it makes up for in gorgeous shrines and temples and well as numerous opportunities for hiking or biking. If hiking or biking is what you’re interested in, be sure to check the individual stations for maps. Many Kintetsu stations carry such maps for their weekend visitors. While these areas can get crowded on weekends or holidays, stick to the side roads and back paths. Occasionally, you’ll think you’re the only gaijin ever to pass through these hills. The strip of towns from Sakurai in the west to Murou in the far east are all located on Kintetsu’s Osaka line.

Sakurai

Sakurai is a convenient jumping-off point for either eastern or southern Nara-ken. Sakurai’s combined JR and Kintetsu train station makes it easily accessible. If coming from Nara city, take JR, which is the quickest and most direct. While Sakurai itself offers very little in terms of night-life (unless you’re really into bowling and O-sho’s cheap-and-greasy Chinese food), the town does offer a surprising variety of temples and shrines, including Japan’s largest torii (sacred shrine gate). Two of these are discussed in detail below.

Omiwa Jinja

The large mountain to the north-east of Sakurai station houses Japan’s oldest shrine—Miwa Myojin. While the entire mountain is considered sacred, there are a series of shrine complexes throughout the area. Of particular importance to many JETs would be the shrine that houses the god of liquor—just look for numerous casks of sake. The kami (god or spirit) of Miwa itself is said to take the form of a snake. Supposedly there is a trail that leads from the shrine to Hasedera temple a few kilometers to the east. This would make a fantastic hike in the fall when the autumnal colors are in full display. Another good time to visit Miwa is New Year’s Day, when people come to get a bit of purified fire to take home. Finally, while you’re here, you may wish to partake in some Miwa somen noodles—famous throughout Kansai. If you ride the Kintetsu line towards Hasedera and Murou, look for these white noodles drying outside (usually next to a heap of burning garbage). To get to Omiwa Jinja, walk from the station (about 10min) or if you’re taking the JR line use Miwa station, one stop past Sakurai towards Nara.

Tanzan Jinja

Tanzan means “conversation mountain” because it was here in 645 that Nakatomi-no-Kamatari, founder of the Fujiwara family, met with Naka-no-Oe to overthrow the Soga family, which was wielding control over the imperial court. With the fall of the Soga, the Fujiwara came into its own and remained influential for the next three hundred years. After the fall of the Soga, Nakatomi helped implement the Taika reforms, which were based on a Chinese-style bureaucracy. Romantopia, a festival based in Kashihara in the spring of 1995, celebrated the ancient but short-lived Fujiwara-kyo, a capital city founded buy the Fujiwara clan. Supposedly Nakatomi and Naka-no-oe met over a game of temmari—a kind of ancient hackeysack made of an inflated deer’s bladder. A festival commemorates this event on the second Sunday of November each year. The shrine itself is beautiful, although a little off the beaten path. Tanzan Jinja is a 25min bus ride (from Sakurai station) and then a short walk. Kodansha’s Gateway to Japan (from which much of this info was culled) recommends following up this visit with a hike to Ishibutai in Asuka.

Hasedera

Hasedera, located two stops away from Sakurai, is home to—you guessed it—Hasedera temple (-dera is Japanese for “temple”). Actually, Hasedera is part of Sakurai, but the town was historically a separate entity spreading down the mountain valley from the temple. The temple itself has been around in one form or another for almost 1400 years. It houses a large Juichinen Kannon (eleven-headed image of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of compassion) which is part of the 33 Kannon Temple Pilgrimage. Architecturally the temple may remind one of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto as it juts out over the valley on a huge verandah. The temple is known for its spring peonies, and temple visits might be planned accordingly. Hasedera is a twenty-minute walk from Hasedera station.

Murou

Now we’re really getting into inaka (the country). Murou would be just another country town nestled in the beautiful mountains of Nara if it weren’t for Murouji temple. Considered one of the highlights of the Kansai area by Kodansha’s Gateway to Japan, Murou-ji is Shingon-shu—a branch of Buddhism known for its use of esoteric mandala and statuary. Because Murou-ji is off the beaten path, it doesn’t get the tourists other temples get, especially on weekdays, so it comes highly recommended.

Where to begin? Murou-ji is set on Mt. Murou, an extinct volcano so sacred that no-one is allowed on it. Most of the temple buildings come from the Heian era and are designated National Treasures. Of particular interest is Murou-ji’s pagoda—the smallest and most perfectly-proportioned in all of Japan. The inner buildings house Heian-era sculpture which should be familiar to any student of Japanese art. Murou-ji is known as the women’s Koya-san because unlike the large Koya-san temple complex in Wakayama-ken, women were never excluded. Even today, most of the workers on the grounds are female. Down the road from Murou-ji is the Ryugetsu-jinja (dragon waterfall shrine). The actual waterfall is located much further down the road and about 1km up the mountain. Still, it makes a fine hike.

My suggestion for visiting Murou-ji is to make a day of it. Start at Murou-guchi-Ono station and walk down the road, past the vending machines to Onodera. While you can give the actual temple here a miss, notice the 11.5m carved image of Miroku-bosatsu on the hill opposite. Follow the road past the fire station until you get to the hiking trail on your right. This trail will take you up over a mountain for a pretty god hike. Eventually, this trail dumps you out in Murou village—only a stone’s throw from Murou-ji temple. After visiting Murou-ji you can take the bus back. For more detailed instructions, pick up a hiking map (in Japanese) at Murou-guchi-Ono station. Or for those not interested in spending an entire day in Murou, take the bus from Murou-guchi-Ono. If somehow you get totally confused, give the resident JET a call. Like most temples in Japan, the best times to visit would be during the fall to see the maple trees or during the spring to see the flowers in bloom (in this case the rhododendrons).

Akame [Mie-ken]

Akame has about 48 waterfalls and beautiful scenery all year round, not to mention a world-class Salamander Museum. The trail itself is free, the lower part being paved and thus fairly easy. For serious hikers, the upper trails are unpaved, with plenty of steep slopes. Not-so-serious hikers are advised to go half the distance they want to cover and then to hike back the way they came. There are a few concession stands, no soda machines, and incredibly smelly bathrooms: bring tissues. To Akameguchi, take Kintetsu to Yagi and change for either express or locals bound for Sakurai, Haibara, and Nabari. From Akameguchi, take the bus or a taxi to the trail.