Live from Japan!

Yesterday we took the day off and went to Nara. It is the height of sakura (cherry blossom) season here and Nara seemed like the perfect place to see the sights, enjoy the nice day, and look at beautiful flowers.

I was especially excited about going to Nara and seeing all the deer. More than 1200 deer roam the grounds of Nara-koen (Nara park) looking to tourists and small children for handouts. Originally they were accepted there because they were believed to be messengers of the gods. Now they are something of a phenomenon, they have taken over the space and are as much of an attraction in Nara as the shrines and temples.

In general I like most animals (remember the talk of monkeys a few months ago), and I was really excited to see so many deer walking around. It wasn’t long before Aaron decided to buy me a package of shika-senbei (deer biscuits) to give to them myself.

Well, as you can see in the video it didn’t really go quite as well as I had planned. The deer, at about 10am, were quite hungry and some of them were not at all patient while waiting for their handouts. Today I have bruises on my legs to remind me of the experience.

It’s kind of funny because later in the day the deer were so stuffed full that they were laying about and tourists were walking up to them, trying to give them the crackers, and the deer would just sort of sniff them and turn up their nose. I guess I just picked the wrong time!