Insider Journeys: Fufu Nara

Property Overview

Fufu Nara is located on the outskirts of Nara‘s famous deer park, an hour south of Kyoto, surrounded by temples and lush natural landscapes. Hidden between wealthy residential streets and the famous park, the boutique hotel is beautifully designed and instantly calming. Bamboo and Japanese gardens surround the wooden buildings, and the interiors are in muted shades with large walls of glass bringing the outside views in.

There are 30 rooms in total, with each suite featuring a large open-air bath of natural hot spring water, valued for its healing properties. The rooms include a sunken living area complete with a complimentary mini-bar stocked with water, juices, beer and a generous selection of tea as you’d expect in Japan. Champagne and wine are also on offer but at an additional cost. The generously sized beds are comfortable, and the bathrooms open onto the terrace and private onsen, creating a sense of space and a constant connection to the outdoors.

The facilities at Fufu Nara include a small, atmospheric bar lounge area, which opens at set hours in the afternoons and evenings, a day spa and a small gift shop. The onsite restaurant is reached by walking through a bamboo forest, which is a pleasant stroll from the main building and a lovely reminder that you are in Japan as you stroll to dinner each evening. The dining is a highlight, with exceptional local produce served and offering a true taste of Japan. Dinner is a choice of a kaiseki dinner – a multi-course set menu – or teppanyaki, where you dine at the bar watching the talented chefs cook on the specialised grill. Dinner and breakfast are included with your stay. For lunch, we recommend visiting one of the nearby laneway cafes close to Nara Park for a casual lunch and something to break up the more formal restaurant dining experiences.

What we loved

They get the little details right at Fufu. Upon arriving, we were greeted with a refreshing iced tea in the guest lounge - which overlooks the zen garden. When shown to our room, we were met with the smell of wood smoke essential oil and shown the open-air Onsen bath overlooking a bamboo grove. This all created the feeling of entering a spa retreat. We were instantly relaxed.

The Onsen experience in our suite was made all the more spa-like by using the complimentary Japanese medicinal herbs we found in our ensuite. The detoxifying herbs enhanced our soak and created a lovely aroma. Feeling suitably detoxified, we loved then popping open a bottle of champagne and relaxing on the terrace lounge overlooking our bamboo forest: our kind of forest bathing!

Another thing we loved was the level of service. You get the feel at Fufu that the staff know everything about your preferences so they can act accordingly to make your stay as comfortable as possible. We were asked about our timings and plans for the day to ensure the room was serviced to our wishes before we returned. The calming atmosphere, attentive staff and beautiful surroundings were perfect compliments to our action-packed days.

What surprised us?

Japan is wonderfully unique, and in selecting Walk into Luxury’s Japan partners we aimed to strike a perfect balance between showcasing the truly authentic and retaining essential modern Western comforts. Some things that surprised us at Fufu Nara also occur at other Japanese properties (all but the large western chains in the major cities).

We discovered is milk is not commonly available in hotel mini-bars or by asking reception – generally, tea and coffee are served without milk. If, like me, you enjoy a milky coffee in the morning, you have the choice of the creamer sachets that are normally available at the hotel, or you can ask your driver to stop at a 7/11 en-route to the hotel to grab a small local milk to bring with you. This is what I did, and it worked fine.

As at many properties, breakfast at Fufu Nara is served Japanese Kaiseki style at set times. The quality of the food was exceptional and a feast for the eyes with all the pretty dishes making breakfast quite a multi-sensory experience. The setting was exquisite too, dining in a private room overlooking the Japanese gardens and pond. Although very different from the typical Western palate, I felt great stepping into the day after the delicious shiitake mushrooms, omelette, grilled ginger fish and miso soup. There was a small yoghurt and fruit course to finish, too, so if you really don’t want the vegetable/fish courses, you can ask to skip these when you first sit down to breakfast.

Recommended experiences

Just a 10-minute walk away from the hotel is historic Nara Park. There are several beautiful shrines and temples around the park that are particularly striking with their bright red-orange and gold decor contrasting with the lush green forest backdrop. The park is home to Nara’s local deer population, which is surprisingly friendly. We recommend setting a half day aside for exploring the park, and you might even like to visit twice given its vast size and proximity to the hotel.

One of the key sites we visited at Nara Park was the Kasuga Taisha Shrine, a World Heritage site of the ancient capital. The other is Todaiji Temple, known for its golden “Big Buddha” statue, which is best visited early to avoid the crowds. We include a private hosted tour of Todaiji on our Kii Peninsula journey.

Other experience recommendations for your stay at Fufu include the spa – they’re known for their treatments so we highly recommend booking one in advance – and the Teppanyaki dinner. We loved sitting at the bar in front of our very friendly private chef, watching him cook an impressive eight courses of local produce, innovatively prepared: bamboo shoot mousse, citrus firefly squid and sakura and mugwort sorbet were all featured. Our favourite dish was the perfectly cooked fried rice and the local Wagyu beef served with three sauces. It was a fun and unique experience, with the teppanyaki chef’s skills impressive to watch up close.

What’s Nearby?

Fufu Nara is located about an hour’s drive from both Kyoto and Osaka’s Kansai International Airport. Other nearby towns include Koyasan, which is a two-hour drive south. If you can drag yourself away from the oasis of Fufu Nara, we recommend visiting Mount Yoshino, accessed via a one-hour drive through the dense green forest of the Kii Mountains. Mount Yoshino is famous for its cherry blossoms at the start of April each year where over 30,000 cherry trees can be seen in full bloom. We just missed the cherry blossom on our visit, but this didn’t detract from the experience. We started at the top of Mount Yoshino, at the Hanayagura Observation Point, which has stunning far-reaching views across the Kii Mountains. From here you can imagine the interwoven patchwork of Kumano Kodo pilgrim trails that traverse the mountains and converge at the bottom of the Kii Peninsula. You’ll also learn of the significance of Mount Yoshino. After taking in the view from the top, we walked down the winding mountainous town passing shrines and authentic local village shops serving tea and matcha, all with the impressive backdrop of the forest and mountains. A highlight was the World Heritage-listed Kinpusen-ji Temple of the Buddhist and Shinto religions, the second-largest wooden building in Japan dating to 1592. I found it an overwhelmingly spiritual place, with oversized lanterns and the sound of chanting and gongs.