Happy Travel Tuesday! First, some housekeeping: so I didn’t realize that today is the last Tuesday of the week and failed to give out a themed prompt. So next Tuesday will be themed if you wish to join. More details at bottom of post!
And now, onto today’s post! This week, I will be bringing you to the ancient capital of Nara, Japan.
Most of the time, my travels are fueled by the promise of good food. But occasionally, and no less strongly, I am fueled by the promise of up-close animal encounters (see here and here). And it is for this reason that Nara was at the top of my list for Japan.
Nara was the capital of Japan some 1000+ years ago and has several important temples and shrines (including one of the world’s largest Buddha!). But despite the historical importance and the emperors who once ruled here, today it is perhaps most well known for a resident of a different kind.
Yep, that’s right… I am talking about the deer!
According to legend, a mythological god arrived on a white deer to guard the newly built capital. Since then, deer has been regarded as heavenly creatures to protect the city.
I wasn’t loving Osaka too much (where we were based), but I definitely bucked up at the prospect of playing with deer for a day. Luckily, Nara was just a short train ride away. As soon as exited the Kintetsunara Station, I made a beeline for Nara Park, where the deer mostly hang out.
The first thing I did was to purchase a packet of deer crackers from one of the many vendor stands around the park. I couldn’t wait to feed some deer! And don’t worry, they are tame. The same, however, cannot be said for politeness.
These deer know the deal! They can sniff out these crackers from 50 feet away. As soon as I had them in hand, they started coming around begging for food. And let me tell you, they are quite agressive about it!
They came at me, trying to get at my handful of crackers. And then when I refused to indulge them, they went for my shirt! How deer they!
I’m pretty sure that’s what this deer was trying to do in this picture
If you don’t walk away fast enough from these persistent beggars, you might just find yourself in a bit of a situation:
These deer are relentless bottomless pits. But here’s a little unknown secret: they will ask politely if you’re polite to them. If you bow to them, they’ll bow back. Or if you hold a biscuit up and say arigatou (thank you in Japanese), they will make a bow.
Don’t believe me?
I guess the deer in Nara understand broken Japanese ;). They bow for food when you say “thank you”.
Posted by Slightly Astray on Saturday, October 10, 2015
As endeering as these deer were, I really wanted to see a baby! And then… we spotted him. This little real life Bambi was literally the cutest.
This little thing was still shy of humans, shrinking back when I reached out too far. But eventually, he took some nibbles of my cracker offering and came closer to investigate. At this point, I wanted to steal him away to my imaginary cottage in the woods.
I can see us living happily ever after
After my biscuits were all gone, we headed over to the Todaiji Temple (an UNESCO site if you keep score of such things). This temple complex can be dated back to the triple digit years. It was once one of the Seven Great Temples of ancient Nara, when Nara was the center of power for Japanese Buddhism.
on the way to Todaiji. If you look closely, you can see deer on the pathway.
I’ve mentioned before that I found most historical sites in Japan to be quite underwhelming. The Todaiji Temple would be an exception. It was incredible how absolutely humongous the wooden structure is. In fact, this is the largest wooden building in the world! It really makes you wonder in awe of how people back then managed to construct such magnificent buildings without modern machinery.
check out how tiny the people are next to the doors!
The answer is a lot of manpower, apparently. In fact, according to records, over 2.6 million people worked on building the giant Buddha and the hall. The temple has been rebuilt twice over the centuries due to earthquakes and fire, and the current structure is even 30% smaller than the original!
And speaking of the Buddha, the one housed here is the world’s largest bronze Buddha, at 52 feet (or 16 meters)! Sadly, I didn’t get a good picture of it, so here’s a picture taken on the temple steps looking back towards the gate.
At this point, we were ready to go back and call it a successful day trip. After exiting the temple complex to go back to the train station, we walked along a pedestrian street with shops + eateries on one side and more deer milling about on the path.
There was one last thing I wanted to do.
Of course, in typical Anna Fantasyland fashion, I had images of me sitting on the grass while all the deer cuddled up against me, like some kind of modern day Snow White. But that obviously wasn’t going to happen since I’m merely a source of cracker procurement to them. But at the very least, I was determined to get a selfie.
Take #1: semi-fail
Take #2: a little better
Take #3: Success!
take #3: success!
And with that, we called it a day.
Nara was the perfect day trip from Osaka and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quirky, fun outing. This was hands down my favorite day in Japan!
Practical Information:
Getting there:
From Osaka: Take the Kintetsu line to Nara from the Namba Station
From Kyoto: Take the Kintetsu line to Nara from the Kyoto Main Station
The Kintetsu line is great for those without a JR Pass. It’s the fastest line to Nara. But if you have a JR pass, then you’ll probably want to make use of that and take the JR line.
Have you been to Nara? What are you favorite animal encounter moments?
P.S. I apologize for the bad puns I snuck in there.
So I said that next Tuesday will be a themed prompt. The theme is a memorable food experience. This could be anything from favorite foods on a trip to a great restaurant. As most of you already know, food is my favorite topic, so I’ll be looking forward to the delicious posts!
To join the blog party, just link up below!
1. SHARE a post about travel! Anything goes here… whether it’s trips abroad or local adventures, past travels or dream vacations, travel tips and tricks, or anything in between! Just make it about travel!
2. GRAB the lovely button above! And link back to your lovely hosts: that would be Bonnie and yours truly.
3. LINKUP goes live! Every Tuesday at 8 am GMT.
4. HOP around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!
TIPS:
1. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!
2. The last Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Oh my goodness the CUTE – squeee! New addition to my list of places I have to see purely for the adorable animals :p
Exactly! The only reason I went was to play with some deer. You have to go here if you go to Japan!
I haven’t been to Nara because my husband who has been there kept saying the deers are super aggressive. But I bet he didn’t know the deers could bow when you say arigatou!! NOW I want to go there to try it out for myself. #TravelTuesday
They really are aggressive! One kept on trying to eat my shirt. But I don’t think they will actually hurt anyone. Making them bow was so fun, haha!
And my husband missed the fun part. He only talked about how they kept knocking him to make him release the food from his hands. No wonder he is so reluctant to go Nara ever again.
oh they’re so cute!
I know… especially the baby!
omg, the deer are just too adorable. and they’re so tiny! i feel like I could just pick one up and carry it around with me. haha.
Seriously… I wanted to steal that little baby for my pet. He was just too cute!
Too cute, Anna! I love that the deer wander around (and pose for selfies), what a great reason to visit a place. And such a great theme for next week :)
Haha you know me and food! It was not easy getting the selfie with the deer because they’re either completely uninterested or try to eat your hair!
Your puns were really hilarious, don’t worry. All your pics kind of freak me out because deer are so dangerous where I’m from in Northern California! I’d never heard of Nara, and now it’s looks exceptionally fascinating – friendly deer?! My husband and I would love to make a giant Japan trip someday – or just move there for a while. Nara will be included!
Yeah these deer are not like the wild ones in USA! They do tend to get aggressive about getting food but I don’t think they’ll actually bite or head butt anyone. When you make it to Japan, you’ll definitely have to check out Nara!
So cute! I didn’t see any babies, but I agree on the aggression bit. Your selfies, even your so called fails, turned out so much better than mine. I didn’t want to get that close to them. I was too nervous! Love all the deer puns :)
Aww that’s too bad you didn’t see the baby! He was so cute. Those selfies are hard to get! The deer would just walk away or try to eat my hair. It was just luck that I got a good one!
How much fun! I am often lured to travel by good food and/or animal encounters too :-) This is def on my list now!
Yeah I love being able to get close to animals! And it’s so rare to be able to do it for free now too nowadays! You’ll definitely have to check Nara out. :)
This looks so cool! What an awesome place to visit, I love how tame the deers are – the selfies are the best! x
Hehe I’m not a huge selfie person but I thought this definitely called for a few! I love how it looks like the deer is posing in the last one!
So #1 Pretty hilarious puns. #2 I totally don’t blame you for the selfies… I did exactly the same thing at Machu Picchu with the llamas! Like so much so that the local tourists were pointing and laughing at me (very clearly heard the word “gringa” several times)! And #3 that baby is SO cute. We have so many deer in NC, but they are not nearly this fun and friendly… they mostly just run into cars.
I’m excited for you to start posting about Peru and now I really can’t wait now that I know there will be llama selfies!!! I would totally be doing the same thing!
Oh, these deer are just to cute! I love to be around animals too. This will be an ideal spot for me. BTW, I wrote the post about food this week. Anyway, I will try to write another one for next week’s linky.
You’ve been on a roll with the food posts lately! But I love reading them so keep them coming! :D
The deers are so cute! And walking so freely around. Love that!
Yeah it’s so cool that they just wander around with the people! :)
omg look how CUTE! I love love love basically all animals so I would’ve absolutely been in heaven here!
Me too! I’m such a HUGE animal lover and I will never pass up the chance to get close to them!
Aw, this looks like such a neat place! And that baby deer!!! Precious. I’ve never really been to any place with animals wandering around (besides ducks, haha) but would like to visit somewhere like that! And your puns were spot on, hehe.
I’ve been to places in Southeast Asia with monkeys wandering around, but they’re not so cute like this.. they’re actually dangerous! So this was perfect!
Don’t apologise – I love the “how deer they?” :-) Loved reading this post as we are actually contemplating a trip to Japan in April and a friend was telling us all about the deer in Nara. That baby one is too cute!
How exciting!!! When you go there, you must take a quick day trip to Nara! I’ll be looking forward to your deer selfies! :D
Interesting to read about the deer in Nara and how they have become spiritually tied to this area. The temple looks so fascinating and it’s hard to believe it’s 30% smaller than the original structure!
http://passportcouture.com
The temple was absolutely huge and really impressive! But I admit I was more attracted to the deer :).
I can’t think of anything else to say apart from “eeeek, so cute!”
That was the point of the post! Just to brighten up someone’s day with a dose of cuteness :)
How deer they, ha ha. That was punny. Now I wish I hadn’t skipped Nara when we visited Japan. Those deer are adorable. I must say that they aren’t considered sacred in Central Texas. In fact, they are considered a bit of a pest and nuisance as they like to eat people’s landscaping. Great selfie!
Awwww if you were in Kyoto already, Nara would have been such an easy half-day trip! If I lived in Texas and had a baby deer coming into my backyard, I’d probably try to lure it with food and keep it as a pet!
Tee hee, I love the deer selfie! He/she looks like a proper little poser :-) So do the deer roam freely through the streets or do the authorities try to contain them in the local park? It reminds me of my experience in Lopburi, Thailand, with its wild monkey population. I didn’t bring any food with me though as I saw one girl with food have her sunglasses stolen right off her head! I attempted to take photos from a safe distance ;-)
Oh gosh, do not remind me of those darn monkeys!! I still have that tiny bite scar! But despite that unfortunate incident with wild animals, I have apparently not learned my lesson and still attempt to get as close to animals as I can ;). I’m not sure if they’re contained, but the park & by the temple is where they all seem to congregate!
haha selfie with the deer! Love it! I definitely would have loved going to a place like that – those deers are so cute! I’ve seen many many deers in Canada but always from a far as they are the shyest things ever!
Visited Nara Park 8 months ago too and it was such an experience! Too bad I didn’t know about the bowing deer back then. I was quickly distributing the crackers because the deer was chasing and nudging me rather aggressively! Anyway, just discovered your blog and I enjoy your posts a lot!
Thank you so much Kristine! That means a lot to me to hear you say it. Nara was so fun, wasn’t it? And yes they’re so aggressive… I had to hide my crackers so I won’t be chased!
I hid crackers in my jacket’s pocket and that was when they started prodding me from behind. They knew! >.<