Nara | 奈良

Nara is a short train ride away from Kyoto, and many, if not most, just visit for the day and use Kyoto as their base. A less popular but nonetheless recommended option is to stay in Nara for a few nights, which is what I did.

There is a fantastic photography museum there dedicated to a famous local photographer, Taikichi Irie, who shortly before his death in 1992 donated his entire catalogue of 80,000 photographs to his home city. It's a beautiful building with an outstanding collection which they rotate regularly, as well as displaying works by other local photographers. It was one of the highlights of my entire trip.