The Playful Deer of Nara

There’s a town called Nara about an hour away from downtown Kyoto. It’s a cute area with several historic temples, but the most fascinating part is that deer wander the street like stray dogs.

If you’re ever seen these woodland creatures in the wild, you know how skittish they are. One snap of a tree branch and they’re off like a rocket. At least that was my experience growing up in rural Connecticut — deer are timid and avoid human interaction.

So imagine my surprise upon walking the streets of Nara. Here’s one of the first things I see:

These deer aren’t intimidated by humans at all — in fact, they beg for food, which is sold at many places around town for tourists to purchase.

Just don’t let them get too friendly.

This sign cracks me up. Apparently the Nara deer only attack older women and young girls.

Say hi to Bambi! Check out that beautiful orange coat.

I’m spending the day with my new friends Asadeh and Nino. We head over to Todai-ji temple, an UNESCO site as part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.

Since there are a few gates approaching the temple, here’s a map to give you an idea of the layout:

These are Sika deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion.

This is the first gate — Nandaimon, the Great Southern Gate.

It’s fun to watch tourists interact with deer. Everyone I see is respectful; if anything it’s the deer who move in too close to humans, not the other way around. It’s their territory and we’re just visiting.

We pass through the second gate — isn’t it beautiful? — and head towards the main attraction, Todai-ji temple.

Here’s a shot of Asadeh and Nino. I wrote about them a bit here and here — I am SO thrilled to have met this fun couple.

And after all that preamble, this is Todai-ji.

This statue reminds me of an amalgamation of all characters in Little Red Riding Hood — the wolf dressed up as the grandma wearing Little Red’s cape.

We head inside and meet Daibutsu, the Great Buddha statue. It’s 50 feet tall and weighs 500 tons.

There’s a hole in this column where tourists can pose for photos.

So Asadeh and I try it out:

We head back outside and are greeted by more creatures, large and small:

As we head towards our next destination — another UNESCO temple — we stop for lunch at a place that serves soba noodles. Nino conveniently speaks Japanese and orders for us.

We end our afternoon at Kasuga Grand Shrine. The entrance is lined with giant stone lanterns. I wonder if they light them on special occasions or festivals? I’d fly back just to photograph that.

Kasuga is a giant complex with hundreds of hanging lanterns. Pure eye candy for a photographer.

Check out this house — it was built around this massive and listing tree:

There’s a dark room with glowing lanterns.

As the three of us make our way back to the train station, we cave in and buy deer food. Asadeh and Nino dole out the goods while I photograph:

Another fun fact about the deer in Nara — they are polite! If you bow to them, they will bow back. (Apparently they’ve been trained over the years with food.) Nino gives it a shot.