Season 2010

The new season for Nara Walk will begin soon! From March 1st, we are back in JR Nara Station to welcome you with our daily walking tours.

What's New for 2010?
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1.More Daily Walking Tours You Can Join Without Reservation!

If you have limited time in Nara and want to find out about Nara, try our new tour "Daily Morning Todaiji".

Daily Morning Todaiji is a daily tour you can join without reservation from March 1st through December 20. Fee is 1,500yen per person. Duration is about 2hours.

For details check our website at NARAWALK (www.narawalk.com).

2.Special Tour to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Nara becoming the first capital in Japan.

Did you know that the first capital of Japan was set in Nara? This year Nara is celebrating the 1300th anniversary of becoming the capital.

To celebrate this occasion, we are planning a special tour in the area near Nara Palace Site. We are still working on the details, imagining the smiles of our future customers.
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The day is getting longer and longer. Plums started to bloom. It's getting nicer and nicer to take a walking tour.

Sue
-NARAWALK guide

The hell might exist under the sacred ground??

There is a very strange story in Noh Play. The story is titled “The mirror of a field guard – Nomori no Kagami”. A travelling priest encountered an elderly field guard. At night the field guard transformed to a fierce deity with a magic mirror.The mirror reflected everything and showed the traveling priest from the heaven to the hell. When the fierce deity stamped his feet, the ground was split in two. Inside the ground, the path down to the hell appeared. The deity climbed down the path to the hell and disappeared.

Where do you think the story is set? It is set somewhere at Tobihino, along the approach between the first and second Torii gates in Kasuga Grand Shrine. Tobihino is a gently rolling grass land where usually deer are roaming and eating grass. But be careful if you find a strange path in Tobihino! It might be the path leading you to the hell.

We are happy to tell you about Noh Play!!
Keiko
-NARAWALK Guide

Ladies Only

"Ladies Only," the sign says. Where do you think you can find this? The answer is on a train. Trains which run in urban area usually have women-only cars during the rush hour of weekdays. (For some route it's all day except for weekends and holidays.) The rush hours are usually till 9:00 in the morning and 17:00~21:00 in the evening. You can find specific hours for each train company on their sign.

As there are many signs on a platform and a train, it is easy to miss the signs for women-only cars. But if you happen to ride one, you'll notice for sure.

Unlike ladies-only car, our tour welcome both men and women~

Sue
-NARAWALK guide

She may be thinking her baby's name・・・・・

She will be a young mother this spring.

After birth, mothers and babies are kept in the Deer Pen in Kasuga Grand Shrine for a while. New-born babies make a debut in the Nara Park late spring or early summer. How cute they are! Come and see them!

Keiko
-NARAWALK Guide

Garden of Painting Japanese Art of the 00s

What do you make of this picture? Is this a drawing of a manga, Japanese animation, character? Or a piece of art?

To find out go to the National Museum of Art in Osaka. The museum is now holding its fifth anniversary exhibition titled "GARDEN OF PAINTING Japanese Art of the 00s"

In the exhibition you will be able to see some 200 recent and new works done by 28 Japanese artists including Atsuchi Tomoko, Goto Yasuka, Kobayashi Takanobu, Kusama Yayoi, Nara Yoshimoto, O JUN and Sakamoto Natsuko.

As those names indicate the exhibition focuses on new figurative paintings by younger generation of Japanese artists.

Whether you like modern art or are interested in Japanese pop culture, this exhibition has something to catch your eye and imagination.

Duration: ~ 2010.4.4

closed on Mondays (except for March 22) and March 23
Hours: 10:00–17:00, Fridays until 19:00
admission until 30 minutes before closing
Admission Fee: Adults 1000yen, University students 400yen

*Children (up to High school students), under 18, people with disability with one attendant are Free (need to prove their age or status)
**advance tickets sold at major train stations of Kintetsu line and other are 200-100yen cheaper.

By the way, while the National Museum of Art, Osaka is celebrating its fifth anniversary year, Nara is also celebrating its 13ooth anniversary year...1300th year of what? Can you guess? You can find it out during our tour.

Sue
-NARAWALK guide

Kimono! Kimono! Kimono!

Even though Kimono, the traditional dress of Japan, is becoming less popular, there is a day when many young women wear Kimono all over Japan.
It is Coming of Age Day! This day is a national holiday, the second Monday of January. Local governments hold large-scale ceremonies for all the young men and women who have turned 20 in the pervious year. Many women wear beautiful Furisode, which is a formal kimono with long sleeves, while majority of men are dressed in suits.
At the age of twenty, the young men and women get the right to vote, smoke and drink. Also they obtain the freedom to marry without their parents’ permission.

At a station
At Kasuga Grand Shrine

Keiko
-NARAWALK Guide

Tigers Everywhere

As this year is the year of a tiger, even Starbucks coffee shop is selling a mug with a decoration of a tiger, a stuffed tiger and packed coffee beens with a picture of a tiger.
This custom of twelve zodiac animal signs indicating years was introduced to Japan from China. The twelve animals are; mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep ,monkey, rooster, dog ,and wild boar. It is said that each animal sign determines the character and destiny of a person born in the year.

People who were born in the year of a tiger are supposed to have such personalities; thoughtful, passionate, generous, heroic, challengeable, vigorous, and stimulating, but unpredictable, competitive and short-tempered. Do you know anybody who was born in the year of a tiger? The years of a tiger are following,
2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, 1938, 1926, 1914 ・・・・・

In Japanese there is an interesting expression - “Tora( a tiger) ni naru- become a tiger”. Can you guess what it means? When you get dead drunk, people say you become a tiger. This time of the year, there are a lot of New Year’s parties producing another tigers!
Keiko
-NARAWALK Guide