---
name: "Todaiji Temple"
lat: 34.6889851
lng: 135.8398158
official_url: "https://www.todaiji.or.jp/"
fee: "¥800 for an adult and ¥400 for a primary-school child — but that is per hall. The charge applies separately at the Great Buddha Hall, the Hokke-dō, the Kaidan-dō and the Tōdai-ji Museum, so seeing two of them costs twice. The bands are adult (university age and over), 16-18, 13-15 and 6-12, all of the first three paying ¥800. A joint Great Buddha Hall and Museum ticket is ¥1,200 for age 13 and over and ¥600 for 6-12. The museum page states that children below school age (under 6) are free there; for the Great Buddha Hall the official table simply has no row below primary school. Groups of 30 or more pay ¥700 / ¥500 / ¥400 / ¥200. A visitor holding a Japanese disability certificate pays ¥400 (¥200 for a primary-school child). Payment is cash only — no cards, no vouchers. Walking the grounds, the Nandai-mon gate with its two guardian statues, and the Nigatsu-dō terrace cost nothing"
last_verified: "2026-08-11"
---

# Todaiji Temple

This Nara temple keeps its Great Buddha, nearly fifteen meters tall, inside a wooden hall counted among the largest in the world. Its face alone is 5.33 meters long, and the published figures reach down to the hand and the foot. The temple answers why so large: ten times the standard measure for a Buddha, because ten expands to the universe. Wild deer graze the approach, and the gate you pass first holds two guardians over eight meters tall, carved in sixty-nine days.

- Area: nara_nara-park
- Type: sightseeing
- Hours: The Great Buddha Hall opens 7:30-17:30 from April to October and 8:00-17:00 from November to March. The Hokke-dō (Sangatsu-dō) and the Kaidan-dō keep shorter hours, 8:30-16:00 all year, so leave them until after the Great Buddha Hall or you will be turned away. The Tōdai-ji Museum runs 9:30-17:30 from April to October and 9:30-17:00 from November to March, with last admission half an hour before it closes. The temple says it does not close except for special rituals, accidents or disasters. The museum is the exception: it shuts on its own for changes of exhibition, and in 2026 those days are 24 August and 6-9 October. On those days the rest of its building — the halls, the library, the museum shop, the Hafutaimu cafe and the rest space — stays open, which matters because that building is where the lift, the accessible toilet and the changing table are. The grounds themselves are not gated: the Nigatsu-dō can be visited around the clock, though you are asked not to make noise near the hall at night
- Last verified: 2026-08-11

## Family facts (value + conditions + source + verified date)

| Feature | Value | Conditions | Verified | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroller friendly | Yes | You can push a stroller to the Great Buddha Hall and inside it. The temple says the stretch from the prefectural car park in front of the hall, and from the taxi drop-off on its west side, up to the hall entrance has been made passable by wheelchair and stroller — the English page calls it a flat stone path — and that wheels enter the hall itself by the ramp on the front left (west) side. The official map draws the wheelchair-passable route as a purple line, and it has two arms. One is the approach everybody walks: in through the Great South Gate, past the Tōdai-ji Cultural Centre with the lift and the changing table, on through the Chūmon to the hall entrance, with the car park and the Daibutsu-mae bus stop at its southern end. The other runs from the Kaidan-in past the Great Buddha Hall, the bell tower and the Nembutsu-dō as far as the foot of the Hokke-dō, and stops there. The temple states plainly that some parts of the grounds cannot be used by wheelchair, that the open space below the Nigatsu-dō is reachable but sits on a slope with a real change in height, and that the stairs up to the Nigatsu-dō itself cannot be avoided on wheels. There is no stroller park and no stroller-minding service mentioned anywhere official, so plan to keep it with you or carry the child up | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/information/keidai/) |
| Diaper changing table | Yes | Inside Tōdai-ji itself there is exactly one: the accessible toilet in the basement of the Tōdai-ji Museum, which is by the Nandai-mon gate and a walk away from the Great Buddha Hall. A lift connects that basement to the ground floor, so a stroller can get down to it. Nara Prefecture, which looks after the park toilets, lists two more within easy reach — the toilet at the Daibutsuden-mae car park and the one at the foot of the west steps to the Sangatsu-dō — both with a changing bed, and the Sangatsu-dō one also has a child seat. If you are asked and cannot find any of them, the temple tells you to go to the security post in front of the Chūmon gate | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/faq/) |
| Nursing space | No | There is no nursing room. The temple's own answer is: there is no nursing room, but if you need one, come to the security post and they will lend you a room if one is free. The security post is in front of the Chūmon gate, just past the Great Buddha Hall entrance, and the grounds map repeats that anyone stuck for a feed or a nappy change should go there. Because it depends on a room being free, treat it as a favour rather than a facility. For a proper nursing room, the one to aim for is on the ground floor of the Nara Park Bus Terminal, which stands on Noborioji — the road you walk in along from Kintetsu Nara station — and its floor plan marks a nursing room, a multipurpose toilet and a lift on that floor | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/faq/) |
| Indoor / outdoor | 混在 | Mixed, and mostly outdoors. Everything between the gates — the approach through the Nandai-mon, the walk to the Chūmon, the path up towards the Nigatsu-dō — is open air, and only the halls you buy a ticket for are inside. The Great Buddha Hall is a roof over your head; so is the Tōdai-ji Cultural Centre by the Nandai-mon, and that is the building to head for indoors, because the temple's own list of what it holds includes a cafe, a museum shop and a rest space. For rain, Nara Prefecture's answer for the park is that the shelters and open pavilions have roofs and are free to use, and that the Nara Park Bus Terminal and the prefectural office arcade take larger groups | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.pref.nara.lg.jp/site/park/1008.html) |
| Family restroom | Yes | The temple states there are four wheelchair-accessible toilets on the grounds and marks them on the official map. The two you pass on the usual walk are the one by the Great Buddha Hall entrance on the west side and the one in the basement of the Tōdai-ji Museum, which is also where the changing table is; the other two are further up, near the Nembutsu-dō and the Shigatsu-dō, and by the Hokke-dō. Read the symbols rather than the count, because the map uses two different ones: the toilet by the Great Buddha Hall entrance carries the multipurpose symbol, which includes ostomy fittings, while the other three carry the wheelchair-accessible symbol, which the map's own key says is not fitted for ostomy users. The museum basement one is the exception to watch: the map gives it the wheelchair-accessible symbol, but the FAQ and the building's own floor plan both call it a multipurpose toilet, so check on the spot if the fitting matters to you. Nara Prefecture separately lists the park toilets: the one at the foot of the west steps to the Sangatsu-dō has an accessible cubicle, a multipurpose cubicle, a child seat and a changing bed, and the one at the Daibutsuden-mae car park has an accessible cubicle, a multipurpose cubicle and a changing bed | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/faq/) |
| Diaper disposal bin | Not checked yet | Not stated. Neither the temple nor the prefecture mentions a nappy bin, and the prefecture says there are no rubbish bins in Nara Park at all because deer eat what is dropped, so assume you carry it out |  |  |
| English support | 英語メニュー・表示 | What is documented is English in print and in your ear, not English at a counter. The official website runs in eight languages, English among them, with its own pages for opening hours, fees, the map and each hall. On the grounds you can rent an audio guide for ¥500 a person — a touch pen, earphones and a map — in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Vietnamese, thirty minutes of recording covering the temple's history, its buildings and its statues. You pick it up 15 metres past the Great Buddha Hall ticket gate, just before the Chūmon; no reservation unless you are a group of ten or more; the desk runs 10:00-17:00 from April to October and 10:00-16:30 from November to March and may close in bad weather. Two things to know before you count on it: the free pamphlet the temple hands out is in Japanese only, and the children's version of the audio guide exists in Japanese only. Whether the signs on the grounds carry English is not stated anywhere official | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/information/haikan/) |
| Outside food allowed | Not checked yet | Not stated. The temple publishes rules for the halls — no sketching, no torches, no tripods — but says nothing either way about eating or drinking on the grounds. What is stated: the whole precinct is no-smoking, there are no rubbish bins in Nara Park and you must carry your rubbish out, and you must not give the deer anything except the deer crackers sold in the park |  |  |
| Kids' toilet seat & step stool | Not checked yet | Not stated. Neither the temple nor the prefecture mentions a child-size seat or a step stool. The prefecture does list a child seat in some park toilets, including the one at the foot of the west steps to the Sangatsu-dō, but that is a chair to strap a baby into while the adult uses the toilet, which is a different thing |  |  |
| Elevator | Yes | One lift, and it is in the Tōdai-ji Cultural Centre — the building that holds the Tōdai-ji Museum, by the Nandai-mon gate. The official floor plan marks a lift on both the ground floor and the basement, which is what lets a stroller reach the accessible toilet and the changing table down there. No lift is shown or mentioned anywhere else on the grounds, and the temple says the climb to the Nigatsu-dō is stairs that cannot be avoided on wheels | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/museum-map.png) |
| Stroller rental | Not checked yet | Not stated. The official FAQ answers the wheelchair question but never mentions strollers, so this is unknown rather than a no. Wheelchairs are lent: not by reservation, just ask on the day at the Great Buddha Hall ticket office or the security post in front of the hall entrance; numbers are limited so they may not have one free, the loan covers the stretch between the hall and the prefectural car park, and the chair goes back to the security post |  |  |
| Child switch (rider swap) | Not checked yet | Not applicable here. There are no rides or height-limited attractions at a temple, and nothing of this kind appears on the official site |  |  |
| Steps & slope caution | 段差多い | The good part first: the whole main approach and the Great Buddha Hall are reachable and enterable on wheels — a made-up route runs from the prefectural car park by the Great South Gate, past the Cultural Centre and through the Chūmon, and the taxi drop-off on the west side joins it, then a ramp on the front left side takes you into the cloister and the hall. Past that it gets hard. The temple says outright that some parts of the grounds cannot be used by wheelchair. The open space below the Nigatsu-dō is reachable but runs along the hillside with a real change in height — the English page calls that stretch quite uneven and uphill — and the climb to the Nigatsu-dō itself is stairs that cannot be avoided on wheels. On the official map the passable route is a purple line whose eastern arm ends at the foot of the Hokke-dō, so read the line rather than assuming | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/information/keidai/) |
| Nursing rooms | No | None. The temple's FAQ says so in as many words; the security post in front of the Chūmon will lend a room if one is free | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/faq/) |
| Diaper changing tables | Yes | One inside Tōdai-ji, in the accessible toilet in the Tōdai-ji Museum basement. Nara Prefecture lists changing beds in two nearby park toilets as well: the Daibutsuden-mae car park and the foot of the west steps to the Sangatsu-dō | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/faq/) |
| Hot water for formula | Not checked yet | Not stated. No mention of hot water for formula anywhere official — expected, since there is no nursing room to put it in |  |  |
| Fathers welcome | Not checked yet | Not stated. There is no nursing room, so the question of who may use it does not arise on the official site |  |  |
| Microwave | Not checked yet | Not stated on the official site (as of 11 August 2026) |  |  |
| Room privacy | Not checked yet | Not applicable as a fixed facility. There is no nursing room to describe; what exists is a room the security post may lend if one happens to be free |  |  |
| Official family-friendly certification | Not checked yet | Not stated. No family-friendly certification mark from a local authority or third party appears on the official site |  |  |
| Crowding (guide) | Yes | The temple publishes nothing about crowding — there is no timed entry and no reservation, so nothing meters the flow. Nara Prefecture does publish it, and its message is that what gets crowded is the roads and the car parks: it says congestion and full car parks happen around Nara Park on holidays through the spring and autumn seasons and that coming by public transport is the recommendation, it says the park gets very crowded in the holiday season and suggests parking further out near the station and using the Gurutto bus to get around, and it announces that it publishes an AI forecast of road congestion around Nara Park. Inside the grounds, the queue to expect is at the ticket window, which takes cash only | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.pref.nara.lg.jp/site/park/1007.html) |
| Quietness (guide) | Not checked yet | Not stated. The official site sets out manners — no sketching or torches inside the halls, no tripods around the Nigatsu-dō, no noise near it at night, and do not point a camera at pilgrims walking their rounds — but nothing that rates how quiet the place is |  |  |
| Stroller access notes | Yes | Three things to settle before you set off. Parking: the temple has none of its own and asks you to use nearby car parks; on spring and autumn weekends the prefecture opens free park-and-ride car parks. Wheels: the made-up route for a wheelchair or a stroller starts at the Daibutsuden-mae prefectural car park and at the taxi drop-off in front of the Sashizu-dō on the west side of the hall, and runs to the hall entrance — arriving anywhere else means finding your own way. Bikes: park at the rack southwest of the Nandai-mon, and note that you may not ride on the approach between the Nandai-mon and the Great Buddha Hall or in front of the hall entrance, because of people and deer; if you cross it, get off and push. One correction worth knowing: the temple's access page still gives the Gurutto Bus fare as ¥100, but the prefecture that runs it changed the routes and fares in April 2025 and now charges ¥250 for age 13 and over and ¥130 for a primary-school child. Under-6s travel free at one child per fare-paying passenger of primary-school age or older, and a second under-6 costs ¥130; under-1s are free whatever the number. It runs 10:00-17:00 at 20-minute intervals, three an hour, on weekends and public holidays plus weekdays in season. Coin lockers are behind the ticket office of the Tōdai-ji Museum | 2026-08-11 (web) | [source](https://www.todaiji.or.jp/access/) |