Nara Park with a toddler (2–3) 3 spots
A 511-hectare prefectural park holding Todaiji and Kasuga Taisha inside it.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A temple whose wooden hall, among the world's largest, shelters a 15-meter Great Buddha.
Stroller OK · Changing table · Elevator · checked Aug ’26
A shrine founded in 768, with some 3,000 lanterns given along its approach and cloisters.
Changing table · Family restroom · checked Aug ’26
A deer may bow to them. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation writes that "when you buy shika-senbei crackers and go to give one, the deer will sometimes lower its head and bow." The crackers are sold from stalls in the park, 200 yen for a bundle of ten, made of rice bran and wheat flour with no sugar and no salt. When the crackers run out, use the "deer signal" from the official leaflet: open both hands wide at the deer's eye level to say "there is no more."The deer are wild. Nara Prefecture writes: "deer may charge, butt with their antlers, bite, or kick and cause injury, so do not touch them carelessly and do not let children approach them alone." The preservation foundation gives the reason: "children's eyes are close to the deer's eye level, which raises the risk of a charge or a head-butt." One of the six lines on the official leaflet is "small children go with an adult!" Teasing gets you bitten, so hand the cracker over at once. Spring, with does that have just given birth, and autumn, with bucks in rut, call for extra care. Ball games are prohibited.
Before you buy a ticket you walk through the Nandaimon gate, where two Kongo Rikishi guardians just under 8.4 meters tall stand. That part is free. Wild deer are simply there on the approach beyond the gate, so you meet them just by walking the grounds. In front of the Great Buddha Hall stands the octagonal lantern (a National Treasure from the Nara period), with music-playing bodhisattvas carved in relief on the four faces of its lamp chamber and four lions running through clouds on its four doors.The deer here are wild, not kept animals. Nara Prefecture says "families with small children in particular should take care," and Todaiji asks visitors never to approach a doe with her fawn: the mother turns nervous and may do harm, and a fawn that picks up a human smell can be abandoned. Feed them only shika-senbei, and hand it over at once instead of teasing. Wheels reach the approach and the Great Buddha Hall, but the way up to Nigatsudo has steps a wheelchair cannot avoid, and even the plaza below Nigatsudo runs along the hillside with a change in height (the English page calls it "a fairly bumpy uphill"). Payment is cash only.
The Wisteria Garden at the Manyo Botanical Garden grows 20 varieties, about 200 plants, not on overhead trellises but in a standing-tree form, so the flowers sit at eye level instead of overhead (usually from mid-April to early May). The approach is outdoors the whole way, lined with stone lanterns, and deer walk along it.The deer are wild. Kasugataisha is one of the three issuers of the English warning leaflet, alongside Nara Prefecture and Nara City, and puts its own name to the line telling you not to let your child approach the deer alone; the headings are butting, dashing, kicking and biting. When you run out of crackers, hold both hands open to show the deer. Along the approach, deer will take bags and pamphlets out of your hands. Inside the Manyo Botanical Garden, catching insects and picking up acorns or fallen leaves are both prohibited, and balls and other play equipment may not be used.