Nara Deer Paradise
February 21, 2025.
We got up decently early this day to say good morning to my family before they headed off to work/school. We then headed to the executive lounge of the hotel for an awesome buffet breakfast. It was actually pretty intimidating. Everything was so cute and dainty...
Then we made our way down to the station and got on our way to Nara!! Nara was one of the places I was most excited to visit and it did not disappoint. The city is so beautiful in every way. We wandered the various temples and streets for quite a while before getting to the famous deer park.
The miniature deer were excellent. Perfect in every possible way. We went at the end of winter so they just had little nubbly stumps for antlers. In Nara the deer's antlers are trimmed every year in autumn to prevent them from damaging the town and themselves when they get all randy during spring. Their antlers are trimmed in a ceremony which has been an annual tradition since the Edo period!
The deer are very friendly despite being completely wild animals. They are gentle and uncaring of the presence of so many humans. Unless, of course, you have deer cookies. If you have a packet of deer cookies they are vicious beasts and will bunt you and bite your bottom if you don't shell out fast enough. Yes I was able to live my fantasy of being bitten on the bum by a magical miniature deer! Yes it did hurt!
After playing with the deer we wandered through a few smaller shrines and temples towards Tōdai-ji Temple complex which houses Nara's Great Buddha. The entire complex was breathtaking. Literally beyond words. Just.. Feat after feat of engineering and human creativity. The building that housed the Buddha was apparently until 1998 the largest (as in cubic metres, not height) wooden structure in the world!! And to think that was a smaller version that had been rebuilt after a fire. The thing that struck me most were areas at entrance ways and commonly traveled areas where the ancient wood had become soft, smooth and rounded. This unthinkably old monument slowly bends to the touch of innumerable worshippers.
We wandered around more gardens and ancient buildings until we suddenly became very very cold and hungry. It was snowing in the air above us but it was melting before it hit the ground and we had forgotten to eat all day. Forgetting to eat all day and then bingeing was a bad habit of ours during this holiday. We eventually stumbled our way back to the shopping streets with grumbling tummies and numb fingers and slipped into a tiny lil curry restaurant. It was sooo good, we were healed by the power of warm rice and chicken curry. This gave us the strength to go back out into Nara town and do some shopping for souvenirs. Despite it being incredibly cold, we stopped for ice cream at a store selling sweet potato soft serve which was delish. Frostbite regained, we finally stumbled back to the station and went back to the hotel for a quick lie down.
Following a much needed lie down we went out into Namba to check out the Angelic Pretty store and get some street food. The Osaka AP store was lovely, I really wish I'd been better dressed for it. I also wish I'd bought more stuff lol. We also popped into the Baby store but it was emptyyyyy!!!! Only AATP stuff in there like wtf. We also went into a huge Daiso and bought a stupid amount of stuff. After that we went back to the hotel and straight to bed (sorry Uncle!!!)
This is the most popular of Nara's mascots: Shikamaro-kun! He is a cute, friendly, chubby deer. There is so much merchandise of this little guy around Nara. I picked up a couple of toys of him!!
