festival of lanterns in Nara

Planned as only one-night stop in our busy Japan itinerary, Nara surprised us, oh so positively! Perhaps, because the legends of deers running freely and being extremely friendly turned out to be totally true and so much fun, or because we were lucky enough to find out that we arrived right in the middle of the local Festival of Lanterns. After an afternoon stroll around the park, we stopped to watch thousands of candles being lit all around the area and even enjoyed a beautiful jazz concert while snacking on some Japanese festive street food (of course). See below a few pictures from this magical evening...

If you want to see more of our Japanese experience, you can read all about it here.