"Oh hello dear.. deer? They just sit there and let you pet them. How cute."
It was spring, late March in Kyoto where it was chilly but not too cold as we welcome the arrival of the cherry blossoms. We were on our way to Nara park, we got there by the JR, it took us less than an hour to get to Nara from Kyoto town centre. It is a famous public park, known for its gorgeous nature and of course - the Nara deer. The park itself is considered as a national treasure, it was such a delight to visit during the start of spring as the sun lights up the soft, golden tones of the gardens when I went in March. The park is a few minutes walk away from the station but it is so close to many interesting places and shops, and it leads to the shrines and temples in Nara such as Todaji. We didn't end up going to Todaji but we did visit Kofuku-ji which leads us to Nara park.
On our way to the park, a vendor was selling mochis. Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-
The most entertaining feature of the park has to be the thousands of deers walking around the park freely. They were such friendly creatures, stubborn but polite, these deer are accustomed to human presence and they walk around the park with such disturbing confidence. You can pet them, take selfies with them, but they'll just run off. Where to, you ask? To people holding a potential meal, or at least just a snack. They will follow you around when they notice you have these num nums, sometimes they will nudge you to remind you to feed them. If you want to feed them, you will find little stalls around the park selling these deer-crackers (shika-senbei) for 150 Yen.
Bonus: We stumbled upon a cute little shop in Nara selling little trinkets that are mainly pigs, cats or owls. AND THE STORE KEEPER IS AN OWL! HOLY. I love owls.
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