Can a free tour of the city by an English speaking volunteer be booked in advance? Please tell me how this works.

숙소를 이용하지 않더라도 짐 보관을 해주나요? 해준다면 비용이 어떻게 되나요?

How much is it to he an english speaking guide for half a day or a full day? Thank you.

How do we get to the visitor center from Nara station? We took the JR train

I will go to Nara next month. I have a question .. is it possible to rent cycles to people who are not going to sleep here?

Hi Nara visitors centre We are travelling to your centre today from Kayto see th stone Budda Ataya in Yagyucho Is this possible in a day as we are on are way Looking forward to your response and suggestions of what we can see and explore in our day in Nara. Sonia and Sharon

hi this is gabby from manila. could you help us organize our day and recommend which places to go to by foot for 1 full day? we are planning to go there next week and experience the deer park and cherry blossoms as well...

質問はありません。追加訂正したいだけです。

Nara visit trip I had a chance to be part of the Nara tour trip to Asuka village, Omiwa shrine and then Sake wine tasting at Inabuchi on the 26th of August 2016. Being a researcher interested in agricultural and rural economies, this trip was extremely helpful and enlightening to me and the conversations/ information provided by the tour guide was priceless. The trip started with a visit to the grape vines in Asuka village and along the way, the tour guide introduced me to a brief history of Nara and Asuka village Nara used to be the old capital of Japan before it was moved to Kyoto (8th century) and eventually to Tokyo. Asuka is the only area maintained as a historical area under strict Japanese law. Agriculture is the main industry driving the local economy, producing grapes, blueberry, mandarin, pasmon and Japanese peas. Not only is there vast fields of grapes and fruits, but it has a lot of historical monuments as well and of note is the Asuka museum. Also in Asuka is the Omiwa shrine located at the foot of the Mt Miwa which is the oldest Japanese shrine home to the oldest Buddhist teachings of the 6th century. Asuka village is considered to be a spiritual area of Japan. The Omiwa shrine specialised in land/agriculture/sake brewing blessings with many people who sought to improve their investments in agriculture going to this shrine to pray. After arriving the grape vine, we met with the farmer and his team responsible for growing grapes. As we went through the grape vines, helping ourselves to some grape fruits, we were given more information about grape farming and marketing in Asuka. Grapes are mainly grow for table eating and sold on the local markets which has a lot of demand, i.e. the supply cannot meet the demand for grapes locally, so the farmers do not even seek to rich-out to the outside markets like in Kyoto (which have their own grape farms). These grapes are hand grown with minimum use of chemicals and machines, they are also handpicked upon ripening. The farmers use nets and paper bags to protect the grapes from birds and other pests. The area has basically 8 types of grapes fruits that it produces all with different uses, with the majority being table grapes, and some for wine making etc. The 8 types of grapes can be grouped into two types; the in-house grapes which are grown from March and the black grapes which are grown outside in the sun from August to December. The biggest area that produces grapes in Asuka is called the Yamanashi. The only chemicals used are the fertilisers which are applied in liquid form. Sometimes production is done to a specific set of customers who come to pick the grapes at the market and the farmers do not have to incur transportation costs. This particular farmer that we visited was trained at an agricultural college where he learned plant breeding and has been practising and undertaking refresher course for the past ten years which has helped him to do his own grape breeding to produce a number of other varieties out of the popular Kyoho variety originally grown. Wine and juice is processed nearby by a private processing company which the farmers pay only for its processing, and then they market the wine straight to the customers on their own, locally again. After each season, the grape vines are cut down and new ones are grown for the proceeding season. After the grape vines visit, the tour then took us to the vast individually own small scale rice fields in Inabuchi. These rice fields presented the original structure of rice fields of Japan and were being maintained to preserve this historical feature. And one of the most popular hostirical features of these rice fields is the presents of scare-crawl (known as Kakashi in Japanese language) erected to scare away animals and birds. The kakashi is very popular in the fields. There is a Kakashi culture has been in existence since time immemorial suh that there is contest each year to see which farmer builds the most breath-taking and highest kakshi in the village, with some being as high as 20m. The Kakashi uniform is changed every year and often reflects contemporary issues happening that year. For example, the Kakashi of 2016 was glad in national colours used at the Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Several fruit picking and rice field days’ tours are arranged for the young (elementary and high school) at the farms in Asuka so as to encourage youngsters into taking an interest in farming since most of them are moving into towns after finishing school. After feasting our eyes to the huge Kakashi, it was time to eat and the tour guide led us to the village’s market place where we had a delicious meal whose main ingredients were all local. After enjoying the meal, the tour took us to the market place where we had a feel of how farmers sold their produce. This part of the tour was very much interesting to me as l leant about how the farmers were utilising a centralised marketing place where they gave their produce to one shop to sell for them and they would later collect their incomes. It was extremely organised and seemed efficient, l drew a lot of lessons that can be adopted for farmers in Africa where l come from. The market in Asuka are strategically placed with adequate access to roads and hence access to markets for inputs and outputs. The tour was structured in a way as to make sure it ended with some drinks. From the market we then visited the oldest Sake brewery in Asuka. The oldest sake brewing factory in found there and Sake brewing is done between October to March. Sake is fermented alcohol (sugar converted from starch using a fungus called koji mould, process of making the sugar is called sacarification. The process of making the Koji mould is also very complicated as it is done using traditional methods and involves sprinkling koji mould on top of steamed rice and setting temperatures high in a room for two days. The Sake making process itself takes between 20 and 35 days. The rice used for fermentation is polished and the more the polishing the more expensive is the costs of production and in-evidently the higher the quality of the Sake. There are dry and non-dry sake and the former is more suitable fir dinners and the table in general while the later for drinking. Sake brewing started in Nara area called Miwa and usually contains upto 12% alcohol. We tasted the wine and really enjoyed the different distillation, fermentation and alcohol percentages in each different brand of Sake. This was the best way to end a tour trip, with a couple of drinks of the oldest wine brewery in the oldest village of the old Nara prefecture.

Добрый день! Спасибо за ответ! Подскажите, пожалуйста, не будет ли демонстрироваться чайная церемония для туристов 31 Марта? В какое время нам нужно подойти для участия в занятиях? Заранее спасибо, с уважением, Наталья