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Roots Earth in Nara: audio stories about 44 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 44 places in Nara, Japan, in Asia. The Nara stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Nara, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 44 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: nara.md

The 44 places in Nara with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Tōdai-ji
  2. Kasuga-taisha
  3. Kōfuku-ji
  4. Nara Park
  5. Hōryū-ji
  6. Yakushi-ji
  7. Tōshōdai-ji
  8. Nara National Museum
  9. Heijō Palace
  10. Nigatsu-dō
  11. Gangō-ji
  12. Shin-Yakushi-ji
  13. Isui-en
  14. Mount Wakakusa
  15. Kasugayama Primeval Forest
  16. Heijō-kyō
  17. Daian-ji
  18. Saidai-ji
  19. Hokke-ji
  20. Akishino-dera
  21. Hannya-ji
  22. Nara Prefectural Museum of Art
  23. Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography
  24. Kōriyama Castle
  25. Kintetsu Nara Station
  26. Nara Station
  27. Nara Women's University
  28. Nara University of Education
  29. Nara University
  30. Naramachi Old Town
  31. Sarusawa Pond
  32. Higashimuki Shopping Street
  33. Mochiidono Shopping Street
  34. Sanjō-dōri Street
  35. Tamukeyama Hachimangū
  36. Yoshikien Garden
  37. Yoshiki River Walk
  38. Manyo Botanical Garden
  39. Saho River
  40. Nara Prefectural Office
  41. Nara City Hall
  42. Naramachi Lattice House
  43. Yamatokōriyama Goldfish Town
  44. Gangō-ji Gokurakubō Quarter

Is there an audio guide for Tōdai-ji?

Yes. Tōdai-ji has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 44 Nara places in the app, at 34.68916667, 135.83972222. Every one of the other 43 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Nara

Open Roots Earth and choose Nara. The city has its own map of places with all 44 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 44 places in Nara, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 44 places in Nara, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Tōdai-ji

Coordinates
34.68916667, 135.83972222
In one line
Tōdai-ji is a vast Buddhist temple founded in the eighth century by Emperor Shōmu. Its Great Buddha Hall, among the largest wooden buildings on earth, shelters a bronze Buddha nearly fifteen meters tall.

2. Kasuga-taisha

Coordinates
34.68138889, 135.84833333
In one line
Kasuga-taisha is the vermilion shrine of the Fujiwara clan, founded in 768. Famed for more than three thousand bronze and stone lanterns, it stands at the edge of a sacred primeval forest where deer roam freely.

3. Kōfuku-ji

Coordinates
34.68325, 135.83117
In one line
Kōfuku-ji is the great Fujiwara temple of Nara, founded in 669 and moved to the city in 710. Its towering five-story pagoda dominates the skyline, while its museum holds the famed dry-lacquer Ashura statue.

4. Nara Park

Coordinates
34.685, 135.85
In one line
It links the city's great temples and shrines beneath ancient trees.

5. Hōryū-ji

Coordinates
34.6144, 135.7342
In one line
Hōryū-ji, founded in 607 by Prince Shōtoku, holds the oldest wooden buildings in the world. Its Golden Hall and five-story pagoda preserve Asuka-period art and became Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

6. Yakushi-ji

Coordinates
34.66835556, 135.78431111
In one line
Yakushi-ji, founded in 680 by Emperor Tenmu, is dedicated to the Medicine Buddha. Its original East Pagoda, a celebrated National Treasure, stands beside a modern twin, framing the great bronze Yakushi triad.

7. Tōshōdai-ji

Coordinates
34.67558611, 135.78483333
In one line
Tōshōdai-ji was founded in 759 by the Chinese monk Ganjin, who brought formal ordination to Japan. Its Tang-style Golden Hall and lacquer portrait of its blind founder are treasured National Treasures.

8. Nara National Museum

Coordinates
34.6837, 135.8364
In one line
Founded in 1889 and opened in 1895, this museum specializes in Japanese Buddhist art. Its French Renaissance hall and modern wings hold sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects, with a celebrated autumn exhibition of treasures from the Shoso-in repository.

9. Heijō Palace

Coordinates
34.69111111, 135.79555556
In one line
Construction of Heijo Palace began in 708, and Heijo-kyo became the capital in 710; it was the seat of government through most of the Nara period. Now a vast archaeological site with reconstructed gates and halls, it is a UNESCO World Heritage landmark of ancient Japan.

10. Nigatsu-dō

Coordinates
34.689278, 135.844278
In one line
A hillside hall within the Todai-ji complex, rebuilt in 1669 after fire. Each March it hosts the ancient Omizutori fire-and-water rite, held without break since 760.

11. Gangō-ji

Coordinates
34.67780278, 135.83135556
In one line
Rooted in Asuka-dera, one of Japan's first temples, Gango-ji was moved to Nara in 718. Its Gokurakubo hall reuses ancient roof tiles among the country's oldest. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it sits within the old Naramachi merchant quarter.

12. Shin-Yakushi-ji

Coordinates
34.67588, 135.84617
In one line
Founded in 747 by Empress Komyo for Emperor Shomu's recovery, this temple's Nara-period main hall is a National Treasure. Inside, a wooden Medicine Buddha sits ringed by twelve clay Heavenly Generals, an exceptionally complete guardian circle from the eighth century.

13. Isui-en

Coordinates
34.685646, 135.837674
In one line
A strolling garden of the Edo and Meiji eras, Isui-en pairs two ponds, tea houses, and winding paths. Through borrowed scenery it frames the Nandaimon gate of Todai-ji and the surrounding hills, blending its design seamlessly into the wider landscape of Nara.

14. Mount Wakakusa

Coordinates
34.69103, 135.85419
In one line
Each January the slopes are set ablaze in the Yamayaki festival. An ancient burial mound crowns its summit, and deer roam its open flanks.

15. Kasugayama Primeval Forest

Coordinates
34.68430556, 135.86452778
In one line
An ancient sacred woodland rising behind Kasuga Taisha, where logging and hunting were forbidden in 841. Protected for more than a thousand years, this old-growth forest of roughly 299 hectares forms part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.

16. Heijō-kyō

Coordinates
34.69111111, 135.79472222
In one line
Japan's first great planned capital, founded in 710 on a Chinese-style grid and home to the imperial court until 784. Its broad avenues and palace district shaped the nation, served as the model for later Kyoto, and now form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

17. Daian-ji

Coordinates
34.668, 135.81272222
In one line
Once among the greatest temples of the Nara capital, Daian-ji traces its roots to a 7th-century imperial foundation. A leading center of Buddhist learning that housed hundreds of monks, it survives today as a quiet precinct guarding several treasured Nara-period statues.

18. Saidai-ji

Coordinates
34.69361111, 135.7795
In one line
Founded in 765 by Empress Shotoku as the Great Western Temple, conceived as a counterpart to mighty Todai-ji. Revived in the Kamakura period by the reformer Eison, it is famous today for its giant tea ceremony served in oversized bowls.

19. Hokke-ji

Coordinates
34.6924, 135.80411667
In one line
A serene convent founded in 745 by Empress Komyo on her father's former estate, once head of Japan's network of provincial nunneries. It treasures an exquisite eleven-headed Kannon said to portray the empress, an old steam bathhouse, and one of Japan's oldest gardens.

20. Akishino-dera

Coordinates
34.70316111, 135.77564444
In one line
A quiet temple founded around 776 under Emperor Konin's patronage, set among mossy gardens. It treasures a celebrated statue of Gigeiten, deity of the arts, fusing a Nara-period clay head with a Kamakura body, sheltered in a main hall that is a National Treasure.

21. Hannya-ji

Coordinates
34.70006111, 135.83621667
In one line
A tranquil temple famed as the Cosmos Temple for the thousands of flowers that bloom each autumn. Restored in the Kamakura period by the reformer Eison, it guards a stone thirteen-story pagoda from 1253 and a romon gate that is Japan's oldest surviving example.

22. Nara Prefectural Museum of Art

Coordinates
34.685857, 135.83264
In one line
Opened in 1973 beside Nara Park, the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art holds roughly 4,100 works and stages changing special exhibitions, blending the region's classical heritage with paintings, prints, and crafts gathered over half a century.

23. Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography

Coordinates
34.67558836, 135.84543872
In one line
Opened in 1992 near Shin-Yakushi-ji, this museum honours photographer Irie Taikichi, who spent a lifetime picturing Nara. Designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, it holds his roughly 80,000 images alongside other treasured photographic collections of the Yamato region.

24. Kōriyama Castle

Coordinates
34.65191667, 135.77893889
In one line
In nearby Yamatokoriyama, Toyotomi Hidenaga began full-scale construction of this castle in September 1585, its walls famously raised from scarce local stone, including temple foundation blocks and even Buddhist statues. Reconstructed gates and towers now overlook one of Japan's celebrated cherry blossom grounds.

25. Kintetsu Nara Station

Coordinates
34.68443611, 135.82741944
In one line
Opened in 1914, this underground terminus of the Kintetsu Nara Line sits at the very edge of Nara Park, the closest rail gateway to Kofuku-ji and Todai-ji. Through trains link it directly to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, carrying tens of thousands daily.

26. Nara Station

Coordinates
34.68066111, 135.81902222
In one line
Opened in 1890, the JR Nara Station serves the Yamatoji, Nara, and Manyo Mahoroba lines from elevated platforms. Beside the modern station, its striking 1934 building, blending Western and Japanese temple styles, survives as a much-loved tourist information centre.

27. Nara Women's University

Coordinates
34.68805556, 135.82805556
In one line
Founded in 1908 as a women's higher normal school and made a university in 1949, this is one of just two national women's universities in Japan. Its Meiji-era Memorial Hall and Main Gate survive as designated Important Cultural Properties.

28. Nara University of Education

Coordinates
34.67305556, 135.84333333
In one line
Rooted in an 1888 normal school and chartered as a university in 1949, this national institution near Nara Park trains the region's teachers. Its single Faculty of Education spans pedagogy, the sciences, the arts, and special education, supported by attached schools.

29. Nara University

Coordinates
34.71527778, 135.78305556
In one line
Nara University opened in Horai-cho in 1969 and moved to its current Misasagi-cho campus in 1988. Known for its archaeology and cultural-heritage programs, it draws on the ancient city around it as a living classroom for roughly 3,500 students.

30. Naramachi Old Town

Coordinates
34.677, 135.829
In one line
Naramachi is the old merchant quarter south of Sarusawa Pond, a maze of narrow lanes lined with wooden machiya townhouses. Built largely over the former grounds of Gangō-ji temple, it grew into a thriving trading district during the Edo period.

31. Sarusawa Pond

Coordinates
34.68197, 135.83056
In one line
Sarusawa Pond is a small willow-fringed pond below Kōfuku-ji, created in 749 for a Buddhist rite. Famous for mirroring the temple's five-story pagoda, it ranks among the Eight Views of Nara and carries the sad legend of a drowned court lady.

32. Higashimuki Shopping Street

Coordinates
34.6834, 135.8289
In one line
Higashimuki is a covered shopping arcade running between Kintetsu Nara Station and Sanjō-dōri. Named for its east-facing buildings, it grew with the railway in the early twentieth century and now packs roughly eighty shops and eateries beside the gateway to Nara Park.

33. Mochiidono Shopping Street

Coordinates
34.6811, 135.8296
In one line
Mochiidono is one of Nara's oldest covered shopping streets, running south from Higashimuki toward Naramachi. Its curious name springs from a legend of rice cakes carried on a dragon-slaying quest, and today its arcade holds more than seventy shops and cafes.

34. Sanjō-dōri Street

Coordinates
34.6816, 135.824
In one line
Sanjō-dōri is Nara's main shopping street, climbing east from JR Nara Station past Sarusawa Pond toward Kasuga Taisha and Nara Park. Following an ancient avenue of the old capital, it lines its slope with shops, restaurants, hotels, and lively mochi-pounding demonstrations.

35. Tamukeyama Hachimangū

Coordinates
34.68792, 135.84463
In one line
Tamukeyama Hachimangū is a Shinto shrine on the wooded slope above Tōdai-ji, founded in 749 as guardian of the temple. Its deity Hachiman was invited from distant Usa Shrine to protect the building of the Great Buddha, and its grounds blaze with autumn maples.

36. Yoshikien Garden

Coordinates
34.6859, 135.8387
In one line
Yoshikien is a quiet Nara garden laid out in 1919 on land once held by Kofuku-ji temple. Three small worlds sit side by side: a pond garden, a moss garden, and a tea-ceremony garden with a thatched teahouse.

37. Yoshiki River Walk

Coordinates
34.6866, 135.8405
In one line
The Yoshikigawa is a small stream threading through Nara Park, flowing down from the wooded hills near Kasuga Taisha. It draws a quiet line between the Isuien and Yoshikien gardens and shaded paths that fill with cherry blossom in spring.

38. Manyo Botanical Garden

Coordinates
34.6829, 135.8461
In one line
Opened in 1932 beside Kasuga Taisha, this is Japan's oldest Manyo garden. Across roughly three hectares it grows about 300 plants named in the Manyoshu, Japan's earliest poetry anthology, alongside more than 200 wisteria trees that bloom each spring.

39. Saho River

Coordinates
34.6913, 135.8197
In one line
A tributary of the Yamato River, the Saho flows through Nara City and has been celebrated in Japanese poetry since ancient times. Cherry trees planted in the late Edo period line about five kilometers of its banks, lit at night during a spring festival.

40. Nara Prefectural Office

Coordinates
34.6853, 135.8326
In one line
From the top, a 360-degree panorama takes in Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji's pagoda, and Mount Wakakusa.

41. Nara City Hall

Coordinates
34.6826, 135.8047
In one line
Nara's municipal headquarters stands on Nijo-oji, an avenue whose name reaches back to the grid of the eighth-century capital. The modern building serves a city of more than 360,000 residents, mixing everyday administration with echoes of ancient Heijo-kyo.

42. Naramachi Lattice House

Coordinates
34.6763, 135.8304
In one line
A faithful re-creation of a traditional Naramachi townhouse, the Koshi-no-ie lets visitors step inside an Edo-style machiya. Narrow at the front and deep behind, it keeps its wooden lattice, earthen kitchen, inner garden, and box staircase.

43. Yamatokōriyama Goldfish Town

Coordinates
34.649, 135.783
In one line
A castle town in northern Nara where samurai turned to breeding goldfish in 1724. Today shimmering ponds, goldfish-scooping contests, and fish motifs everywhere make Yamatokōriyama Japan's beloved capital of the ornamental carp.

44. Gangō-ji Gokurakubō Quarter

Coordinates
34.6775, 135.8318
In one line
The old merchant quarter of Nara, grown across the former grounds of Gangō-ji temple. Narrow lattice-fronted machiya townhouses line its lanes, including the Koshi-no-ie house museum, preserving how Edo-era merchants lived, worked, and traded.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.