Daigoku-den Hall Heijo Palace Site Nara

Daigoku-den Hall Heijo Palace Site Nara

This is our first time visiting Japan, our first time taking a train in Japan and our first time visiting Nara from Osaka. There are always myths about the difficulties in traveling in Japan. Based on our experience, there are no difficulties at all.

We survived 5 days in Japan without any guides and we traveled around without any problems. We do agree most Japanese don’t speak English (in Kansai) but they do understand the places we intend to go. Thus, most stations and maps have English and Chinese characters (kanji).

We bought the Kansai Thru Pass for 5000 Yen (RM 200 / US 66) for 3 days unlimited passes in Kansai and we made it worthwhile as we traveled to Nara from Osaka with it. Take the Kintetsu Nara Line from Osaka and you will reach Nara at the Kintetsu Nara Station. Nara is reachable too via JR Pass via JR trains and JR Stations.

The train took almost an hour from Osaka to Nara via Kintetsu line. The best thing about taking the local train is the view of the towns and sceneries in between.

As we approaching Nara, we saw a beautiful palace from the train. It is the Daigoku-den Hall or Former Imperial Audience Hall of Heijo Palace Site.

Heijō Palace (平城宮 Heijō-kyū) in Nara, was the Imperial Palace of Japan (710-784 AD), during most of the Nara period. The Palace was located in the north end of the capital city, Heijō-kyō. The remains of the palace, and the surrounding area, was established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 along with a number of other buildings and area, as the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.” – Wikipedia.org

Please bear in mind the Heijo Palace is more than 1300 years old and it is still well maintained. Another highlight of the Heijo Palace is the Suzakumon Gate (we didn’t manage to photograph it).

Sadly we didn’t manage to visit the Heijo Palace but still managed to capture the pictures on the train. We ran out of time after visiting two temples in Nara.

To visit the Heijo Palace, you need to stop at Yamato-Saidaiji Station (the last third station of Kintetsu Nara Line). It is about 15 – 20 min walk, it is around 1.2 kilometer from the station. There are also free shuttle busses (please ask at the station for more info).

We have attached a map for your convenience.

Wilson Ng