Pet 1000 Tame Deer in Nara, Japan

On my family's 12 day excursion through Japan, we passed out stone cold in the tour bus, eventually waking up in Nara to visit a temple.

But while our guide talked about the temple's background (I will be honest... I don't remember which temple it was exactly... but I just googled "Nara temple" and bam: Todaji Temple!), I was lingering on the first words she said... 1000 tame deer.

Most of us have watched "Bambi" but I've never had the opportunity to pet a bambi. We pulled up to the temple parking lot and immediately I could see dozens of deer chilling under trees.

And in a blink of an eye, you found me here:

The deer were almost cat-like (or calm dog-like) so you could easily go up to one and pet them. Whether it's their little thin forehead hair or their backs with white dots, they let you pet them anywhere...perfect for me. Many of them are looking for people to feed them, so the nicer deer will come up to you and bow their heads. In those moments, it feels like Pokemon coming to real life.

But be warned, they ain't all nice. You have to keep the food you have hidden or there will be a deer hunt, but this time the deer are hunting you.

In a little herd, they'll come up to you and bite for the food in your head. Even when people tried to run away, some deer would run after them and bite their once-pristine shirts.

But what I miss the most from the experience was this one deer that I had met near the entrance of the temple; it looked sleepy while sitting under a tree with those eyes that you have when you're trying not to fall asleep in a college lecture but your eyelids are heavy.

This deer wasn't the most beautiful, it didn't have the best colored hair... it honestly reminded me of an alpaca without fluffy fur, but there was something very sweet about the deer. Now stay with me because I'm about to hypothesize a backstory, but I almost feel like the deer was like the ugly duckling of the group. Maybe that deer wasn't feeling the love, so I hope I could show that deer some genuine love that day.

So if you're ever headed to Japan, I highly recommend visiting Nara and showing that deer some soft petting.

#deer #park #travel #japan #nara #pets #temple #asia #animals #todaji #traveltips