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Nara, with its eight World Heritage sites, attracts a constant stream of visitors. But the bustle of tourist activity is also counterbalanced by the quiet residences of the local people—imposing tile-roofed gateways and unblemished whitewashed clay walls, here and there the green of a neatly trimmed pine tree and sometimes the branches of a plum tree, heavy with white blossoms fluttering in a gentle spring breeze.
Tourists lower their voices and their steps slow as they pass by these dignified homes. Perhaps the pathways and ponds, and the gentle hills of the surrounding landscape, even more than the formal majesty of its historical structures, are what endears Nara to so many people. Nara embraces the traveler as if he or she has come home after a long journey. In Nara, Japan’s most ancient cultural roots are to be found in nameless private homes and in the hearts and minds of the tourists. |
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| The staff of SMBC Friend Securities’ Nara Branch |
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