The deer of Nara

Tuesday we got off to a bit of an earlier start so that we could go to the neighbouring city of Nara, which in fact was only one 40 minute express train away. Nara was actually Japan's first permanent capital city, in the year 710 (!), before which the capital used to be moved to a new location whenever a new emperor ascended to the throne. There are many temples and shrines, but what attracted us to the area is that the park areas that surround them are full of (mostly) tame deer!

We arrived in Nara at around 10am, and after a short walk we approached the parkland area and sure enough, we soon started seeing deer everywhere. You are only allowed to feed them the special deer crackers that are sold at little drink shacks dotted all around the place. A couple of Japanese women gave Willow a couple of crackers to hand-feed them herself, which she loved, as it tickled her hand. The deer were all quite interested in anyone that had crackers in their hand! We stayed very close, because the deer are not small and you never know what might happen, but on the whole they were remarkably tame.

Sure enough Willow wanted to feed them her own packet of deer crackers. What amazed me, was that all the crackers being sold at the shacks were just out in the open, in plain sight, but the deer would only approach someone with crackers once they had been purchased. Quite some special deer!

And they are - historically they were deemed as messengers of the gods and are still considered sacred. The deer even sometimes bow to people - I saw it. One deer stood in front of Willow and nodded/bowed its head three times. A couple of other times I saw a Japanese woman bow to the deer before presenting a deer cracker and the deer, a wild deer, would bow back. Despite the swarms of tourists walking around that the deer are exposed to on a daily basis (and ignoring the fact that one eager deer nipped Ryan on the butt), it was hard to witness that and not realise the place felt special. 

The surrounds were filled with various beautiful shrines and temples, and gardens with the leaves turning different shades of red and orange. It was soon beyond lunch time, so we headed back through the parks, back past all the deer, and sure enough Willow fell asleep so we found a restaurant for a late lunch. It was actually more of a mix of a Japanese/Chinese place, but we were starving and got to have some ramen, gyoza and fried shrimp. 

After lunch we got the train back to Namba/Osaka, and had a quick refresh in the apartment, before heading back to, you guessed it, Dotonburi - and the riverside bar with the coloured tables! Willow was disappointed that her friend who gave her the toys last time wasn't there though. Deciding where to go for dinner, we agreed that we had loved Gyozaoh a couple of nights before and had wanted to try some more stuff, so we went back!

The famous Glico man

One of the chefs remembered us (well Willow really) which was sweet. And we had another awesome dinner - this time we tried some (very) lightly seared beef. So tender - delicious! And some more takoyaki of course, and some karage, tempura and gyoza. Yes, we should probably go easy on the fried foods when we get home!!