Higashimuki Shopping Street

Higashimuki Shopping Street is the first taste of Nara most visitors get, because it begins the moment you step out of the east exit of Kintetsu Nara Station. This covered arcade runs north to south, connecting Omiya-dori near the station down to Sanjo-dori, the main approach road to Nara Park. Roofed against the weather and lined end to end with shops, it is the city's most convenient and reliably lively shopping street, and a place almost every traveller passes through at least once.

The name Higashimuki means 'facing east', a reference to its history: the street originally had shops only on its eastern side because the western flank backed onto the sacred precincts of Kofuku-ji, whose great five-storey pagoda rises just beyond. That one-sided layout is long gone, but the sense of the temple looming over the commerce still gives the arcade an unusual pedigree for a shopping street. For much of its life it served pilgrims and townsfolk; today it serves tourists, students and locals with equal energy.

What you find here is a dense, cheerful jumble. Souvenir shops sell deer-themed everything, from cookies to socks to plush toys; drugstores and fashion outlets cater to the domestic crowd; and a long run of food stalls and small restaurants makes it a fine place to graze. Nara specialties are well represented - kakinoha-zushi, mackerel and salmon sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves; freshly pounded mochi; matcha soft-serve; and kuzu (arrowroot) sweets. Several of the city's most photographed shops sit on or just off the arcade, including a famously theatrical mochi-pounding stand where staff hammer rice cakes at breakneck speed to a rhythmic chant.

Because it is covered and level, Higashimuki is genuinely all-weather and step-free, a useful thing to know on a rainy afternoon or in the summer heat. It is busiest in the late morning and around lunch, and stays open into the evening long after the temples have closed, so it doubles as a place to eat dinner after a day with the deer. Prices are aimed at casual shoppers rather than collectors, making it good for quick, affordable souvenirs.

The arcade also functions as Nara's central hinge. From its southern end you spill onto Sanjo-dori and can continue east to Sarusawa Pond and Nara Park, or turn into the neighbouring Mochiidono arcade to reach the old merchant quarter of Naramachi. That connectivity is really the point: Higashimuki is less a destination in itself than the busy, useful spine that ties the station to everything worth seeing.

Getting there could hardly be easier. It is directly in front of Kintetsu Nara Station's east exit, no walk required. From JR Nara Station, it is about a ten-minute walk east along Sanjo-dori to the arcade's southern mouth. Come for a snack and a browse on your way to or from the park, and let it be the practical, friendly introduction to the city that it has always been.