Photo: Yuki Yoshida (talk) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Nara Park, on the eastern edge of the eighth-century capital. It begins a few minutes east of Kintetsu Nara station at Kofuku-ji, the Fujiwara family's temple: the octagonal Hokuendo and Nanendo, the Central Golden Hall reconstructed in 2018, the two pagodas above Sarusawa Pond, the Eastern Golden Hall and the National Treasure Museum. It goes on past the Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall of 1894 and the borrowed-landscape garden of Isuien to Todai-ji, through the Great South Gate with its Niō guardians carved in 1203 to the Great Buddha Hall and the bronze Vairocana Buddha dedicated in 752, then to the ordination hall, the bell, the Nigatsu-do on its wooden stage and the Hokke-do. The last part runs south past Tamukeyama Hachiman Shrine and along the lantern-lined approach to the Main Sanctuary of Kasuga Taisha and its Wakamiya, ending on the open field of Tobihino and at the pavilion of Ukimido on Sagiike Pond. Visitors coming from cruise ships at Osaka or Kobe travel to Nara by train and need to allow for the train back.
23 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 151 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 21 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Kofuku-ji Hokuendo, Kofuku-ji Chukondo, Kofuku-ji Nanendo, Kofuku-ji Three-Storey Pagoda, Sarusawa Pond, Kofuku-ji Five-Storey Pagoda, Kofuku-ji Tokondo, Kofuku-ji National Treasure Museum.
Nara National Museum Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall, Isuien, Todai-ji Nandaimon, Todai-ji Daibutsuden, Todai-ji Great Buddha, Todai-ji Kaidan-do, Todai-ji Bell Tower, Todai-ji Nigatsu-do, Todai-ji Hokke-do.
Tamukeyama Hachiman Shrine, Kasuga Taisha Lantern-Lined Approach, Kasuga Taisha Main Sanctuary, Kasuga Wakamiya, Tobihino, Ukimido.
The temple's tallest building, rebuilt in 1426 after burning five times, now under a major repair that is raising its upper storeys on jacks.
A two-part garden whose ponds and paths borrow Mount Wakakusa and Todai-ji's Great South Gate as their backdrop.
The Great South Gate, with its exposed Daibutsu-style framing and the two Niō guardians carved in 1203 by Unkei and Kaikei.
The bronze Vairocana Buddha commissioned by Emperor Shōmu in 743 and dedicated in 752, its head and body rebuilt in different eras.
The hall of 1669 that hangs over the hillside on a wooden stage, built for the Shuni-e rite, with a broad view across Nara.
Stone and bronze lanterns given over centuries by aristocrats, warriors, merchants and common people, their light carrying the donors' prayers.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 23 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 23 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Nara — Kofuku-ji, Todai-ji and Kasuga Taisha, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
23 narration points, including Kofuku-ji Hokuendo, Kofuku-ji Chukondo, Kofuku-ji Nanendo, Sarusawa Pond and Kofuku-ji Five-Storey Pagoda. That is about 31 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 23 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.