Nara, Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama Day Bus Tour from Osaka or Kyoto

This day tour links three places that are hard to combine by train. It starts in Nara, Japan’s first permanent capital, where tame deer wander through the park around Todai-ji, home to a giant bronze Buddha in one of the world’s largest wooden halls.

Next comes Fushimi Inari Taisha in southern Kyoto, where thousands of vermilion torii gates tunnel up the hillside, and the day ends in Arashiyama on the city’s western edge, with time to walk through the bamboo grove and down to the Togetsukyo Bridge. A guide travels with the group and explains each stop, and the coach starts from both Osaka and Kyoto.