Nara, Japan is an excellent place to visit, and a big part of this is the wild deer that roam the city. You read that correctly. So, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “gee, I really wanna go to a park where I can feed a bunch of deer” then it’s time to book your “full day ticket from the station” ticket to Nara, actually, It’s around 1200 yen Japan! Nara is a place many are unfamiliar with, but it was actually the first historic place in Japan after Kyoto perhaps as much historic, and has a variety of shrines, temples, and ruins that are collectively a part of World Heritage .
Deer feeding in Nara, Ready for the journey!
Besides being one of the cultural hotspots of Japan that is often overlooked in favor of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka, Nara is home to like, twenty-seven million deer. Or, so it seems. Actually, the ‘Nara Deer Park’ as it’s known is home to over 1,000 deer. It’s an open, public park, not a park in the sense that it’s a petting zoo for deer. Technically, these deer are “wild”, but they are only wild in the sense that there are no cages or fences keeping them in place. This is evidenced by the fact that they tend to roam outside of Nara Deer Park and can be found scattered across Nara.
Roaming Deer, Feeding Naras deer, for real 🙂
When I say “scattered about,” I really mean it. The deer are everywhere, from lingering at the entrance to restaurants to temples to roads (where people simply wait until the deer decide to move out of the way–I never witnessed anyone honking at them) to a variety of other places where you wouldn’t expect to find deer (in reality, I can’t think of many urban environments where you’d “expect” to find deer, but that’s besides the point–they’re all over the place in Nara. They are devious little guys!
As a matter of fact, It will be an enjoyable day whether you picked to feed the roaming deer or just kept satisfied taking a selfie with them:).
The deer have been semi-domesticated as they have been in such close proximity to humans for so long, and the handouts people give them pretty much guarantee that they aren’t going anywhere. I mean, if you were a deer living the posh life of being feed crackers, living in a nicely manicured park, and not being hunted, would you really give that up? Not that deer really think about this that rationally, but I think the food is the only “justification” they need.The deer are a huge draw to Nara, Japan, and the city is quite proud of its rich heritage as it pertains to deer. The Shinto religion and local beliefs hold that a deity named Takemikazuchi arrived in the old capital of Nara on a white deer to act as the city’s protector, and as a result, the deer of Nara were considered sacred, messengers of the gods.
Overall, Nara is an awesome place, and I highly recommend visiting. Not just for the deer, but for the variety of World Heritage artifacts preservation, The photo on the right side I took it myself for a sunset and that’s my friend Iman Please, visit her blog. It’s a nice day trip from Kyoto, and is easy to access for those with a JR Pass. If it’s your first visit to Japan and you have limited time, I probably would go to Nara over Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka, but it’s a good option that’s quite a bit different from those places. As for the Nara Deer Park, once you’re in Nara, you’re going to experience the “park” whether you go to it or not, but you should definitely go into the park itself (it’s a free public park) as that’s the epicenter of deer-happenings.:) Love y’all.
Mostafa
Please visit Iman’s blog here
