Where to Eat in Nara, Japan

Ren and I have enjoyed some of our most memorable meals in Japan at izakayas. They weren’t necessarily the best, but they were always among the most interesting.

On our most recent trip to the Kansai region, we spent our last full day exploring Nara with our Japanese friend Tsutomu. There we’d be having the last meal of our week-long trip, a week that was spent eating at some of the best sushi, ramen, unagi, okonomiyaki, and tempura restaurants in Osaka. For our final meal, it was important for us to find a place that wasn’t just good, but also different from anything we’d already had during our trip.

Thankfully, we found Kura, a small family-run izakaya which Tsutomu would later describe as one of the best izakayas he’s ever been to in Japan.

An izakaya is a type of informal Japanese pub. They’re typically small and casual spaces where Japanese salarymen would get a drink and unwind after work. Jovial and relaxed in atmosphere, you can think of them as the Japanese…