Fujiwara-kyō was Japan's first real city, and the grid that was laid out on this plain in 694 under Empress Jitō was a deliberate imitation of the Tang capital of Chang'an. Until then, the court had wandered from one palace to the next, and each reign built afresh. Fujiwara-kyō fixed the capital in one place, with straight avenues, a walled palace compound, and blocks for officials and temples. It lasted only sixteen years before the court moved north to Heijō-kyō, today's Nara, in 710, but the idea of a planned capital stayed, and Nara and Kyoto followed the same pattern.
What remains today is mostly a very large, very flat field. The palace site covers a wide area, and in summer it is planted with flowers, so that large blocks of cosmos or rapeseed or poppies occupy the space where the great audience hall once stood. Small information boards describe what was found, and the sense of space is the main thing. Three small hills, the Yamato Sanzan, ring the plain, and the best view is from the edge of the site on a clear day. It is a place for a slow walk or a bike ride and not for a rush.
On the road, expect the modest, polite traffic of the Nara basin. The surface is smooth, the speed limits are low, and drivers give way. Kashihara, a city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand, lies only a few kilometres away, so fuel, convenience stores and restaurants are everywhere, and Sakurai is close on the other side. The Asuka district to the south is lovely in a way that requires you to go slowly: tiny lanes, rice terraces, stone monuments scattered among the fields.
Weather matters. Summer is hot and humid, and the rainy season from mid June to July can bring days of steady rain, while typhoons visit in late summer. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and the autumn light on golden rice is exceptionally beautiful.
If you want a place to eat, look for a small restaurant serving kakinoha-zushi, sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves, a speciality of Nara, or somen noodles, which come from nearby Miwa. A cup of tea and a sweet from a village shop set the afternoon right.