Dear Nara Park Curators,

In addition to selling deer biscuits at the entry to the deer park, can you please also provide tasers for those who don't appreciate being headbutted by numerous deer as they attempt to elicit food.

Thanks,

Andrew.


As you can probably notice, I'm not the worlds biggest deer fan. Prior to today, I had never really considered my feelings toward deer. Kinda cute, occasionally tasty with the right preparation, but other than that I haven't really had much to do with them. That all changed today, and I've got the deer-head shaped bruises on my sides and buttocks to prove it.

The deers at Nara could learn alot from the nice, placid, friendly deers on Miyajima.

Today started in the typical Toyoko Inn fashion of going down to the lobby and mingling with a bunch of serious looking Japanese guys in suits in order to get some breakfast. The usual fare: rice balls, sausages, egg, bread rolls, miso soup, potato salad and coffee. Still free. Still good.

The weather forecast for both Nagoya and Nara was overcast with a chance of showers. It seems that by "chance" they mean't "certainty", and by "showers" they mean't "never ending deluge". Still, today was the day we had put aside to go to Nara, and since Nagoya didn't have anything that we overly wanted to see, we decided to try our luck with a visit to Nara. Since Nara is nearly 2 hours away from Nagoya by train (with a swap at Kyoto) we took a gamble that the rain would improve as we approached Nara.

No such luck. Shinkansen to Kyoto, and a quick train change to catch a local stop-start rattler train for the 40 minute journey to Nara. Rain all the way. We had originally planned to walk from the JR Nara station up to the deer park and Todaiji temple, however a bus pulling up offering a dry 200 yen lift to exactly where we needed to go quickly changed our minds. We piled on, and after a reasonable drive (which would have been a horrible walk) we arrived at the deer park.

All of the tourists that got off the bus at the same spot as us, including Charlotte and Angela, clambered to get a glimpse of the first deer they saw. Little did they realise that just across the road, on the path leading to Todaiji temple, where we were all heading, there were so many damn wet, muddy, aggressive, pushy and smelly deer that it actually made it difficult to walk down the path without tripping over them or being knocked over as they sought food.

There are multiple stalls selling some cheap biscuit looking things that the deer go absolutely bananas for. Veronica got some because the girls were initially keen to feed the deers. That all changed when they were surrounded by 50 of the beasts though. It was actually quite hilarious to stand back and watch other tourists purchase their biscuits, turn around only to be absolutely monstered by a huge number of deer. On more than one occasion I saw the poor person being attacked simply throw all of their biscuits at the deer just to save themselves and end the attack. The deer in this park are not stupid. The people selling the deer food must love the entertainment. I would.

We're your typical tourists, so while I had no interest in feeding the stupid deer, my daughters did. I had to hold the deer away from Veronica with my umbrella while she divvied up the biscuits between the girls. Angela then enthusiastically wandered into the centre of a deer pack. Big mistake. They attacked her, trying to get all biscuits that she had. I put the camera away and ran into the group to take the biscuits away from her before she got hurt. Once they saw she no longer had the biscuits they left her alone.

Once I had the biscuits the deer turned on me. One deer, a large male, didn't appreciate me putting the biscuits back in the bag and out of their reach, and took a running headbutt at my side, which I didn't see coming. He got me on the hip, and it really hurt. I spun around to face that deer, and another large male hit me again from behind in the buttock. Spinning around again, and getting ready to punch the second deer that hit me (who looked like he was lining me up for a 2nd hit), I heard "Andrew! Don't!" from Veronica which stopped me doing it. It is probably good that I didn't, because there was both an elderly tour group and a school group standing and watching all of this commotion unfold.

If anyone is considering visiting Nara purely to see the deer, don't. Just...don't.

The one advantage of rain is that it keeps the crowds away. Today that worked well for us. So despite the unpleasantness of rain, puddles and damp and filthy deer, today wasn't a bad day to visit Nara. There were still a number of fools like us who were willing to brave the rain today, so I get the impression that the deer park, and the Todaiji temple area in particular, can get particularly stupidly crowded when the weather is good.

After making our way through the stupid deer plague, we got to the gates of the Todaiji grounds, and the deer population thinned dramatically. It was fantastic being able to stroll up to the gates of the temple, enter, browse around and get any position for any photo we wanted without having to wait, or tell people to move etc. The grounds in front of Todaiji temple were also particularly pretty in the rain.

Inside Todaiji temple (the largest wooden building in Japan) wasn't as interesting. It housed the giant Buddha, a few smaller gold Buddha statues, and a few other interesting bits and pieces. I found it particularly off-putting that such a historically significant site housed half a dozen souvenir vendors, selling deer dolls, umbrellas, and a heap of other Nara related bric-a-brac. Outside of the temple itself there was ample ground to set up these souvenir stands (and indeed there was some) but in my opinion putting them inside Todaiji temple itself just cheapened the whole experience.

The most interesting aspect of the inside of the great Buddha hall, for me anyway, was a hole in one of the columns. People of all ages and sizes were crowded around this particular pillar, while a few people each took turns to try and squeeze through. The crowd got quite excited when Angela tried, and many cameras flashed. She got stuck, and everyone except her thought it was very funny. I had to drag her out by the feet. Charlotte gave it a go, and got through without a problem, to applause from the gathering crowd. With enough peer pressure from enough people in a language she couldn't understand, Angela decided to give it another go, and this time she dragged herself through. People clapped and several people shook her hand.

It wasn't until later that we learnt what all of this meant. Apparently this hole is the same size as one of the great Buddha's nostrils. This didn't mean much, except when checking wikipedia when we got back to the hotel we found out that it is believed that those who pass through the hole will be blessed with enlightenment in the next life. Something to look forward to I guess.

After Todaiji, we were going to continue following the walk to look at the other Nara sites. Since there was now quite a crowd building, and it was far too wet, and getting a little too late, we decided to walk back towards the 5 story pagoda, find somewhere for lunch, and head for home. Walking back through the park, through the stupid deer, and down the main road around the park grounds, through the constant drizzling rain, it is obvious that Nara (or this part at least) is a very pretty place. Still, we'd had enough. We found the pagoda, and safe in the knowledge that it was just an unremarkable pagoda, we kept walking. Originally, to the east and west of Todaiji there were 2 pagodas, each supposedly over 100m tall. Now that would have been something interesting to look at.

Through the main street, and there was very little that we found that we wanted to eat. Until we found the old favourite, Coco curry. Still, we've never had a bad meal there, ever. Back onto the train to Kyoto, which by the time it arrived we were all beginning to doze. That is one thing I love about Japanese trains. Everybody sleeps. No matter what time of the day, no matter what kind of train or how crowded it is, people sleep. You don't look at all out of place getting on a train, laying your seat back and closing your eyes, and that suits me perfectly. They even play an alarm song at each station to wake sleeping passengers, and it seems that the Japanese traveller is programmed to respond to this happy little tune, because when it plays they stir, check the name of the upcoming station, then either pack their belongings and get up, or go back to sleep.

After resting in the room for a while, we decided to head back to the vending machine restaurant next door for dinner. Tomorrow we head to Kobe, for the 2nd last city hop of the trip. Hopefully tomorrow night we can catch Kobe Luminarie.