Nara
Our first stop in Kansai was Nara, the capital back in the 8th century. The one and only thing I had heard about Nara prior to visiting was the deer. Upon arrival in Japan I kept asking people where I could find the deer and what the best way of seeing them was – well fret not. They were everywhere!! Just a few hundred meters from Nara train station is Kofuku-ji, a Buddhist temple.
Beware, the deer!
There are deer just roaming all around, and literally hundreds of them! We kept walking a little further, towards Nara Park and there are plenty more deer looking for some snacks. There are even people selling little packs of deer cookies for you to feed them. This is great because it prevents people from feeding them any old thing!. However, this has lead to some very greedy, little (read: big) deer! They come right up to you sniffing out some treats and can get quite pushy (read: aggressive). One naughty lady deer even took a nip at me and ended up biting my hip, through my dress and panties! We bought a pack of deer cookies and a beer each and had a picnic in front of the museum. A well-deserved rest break!
Todai-ji
We took a walk through Todai-ji and spotted a deer just as exhausted as us, hiding in the shade of the tourist stalls. There were so many people around, we decided to walk out through the back grounds of the temple complex. We stumbled upon the cutest little store selling all sorts of handcrafted deer paraphernalia and some really old postcards!
