Kansai Diaries – Back to Nara

Nara is one of those placse I’ve been to – and chronicled – multiple times before.  But since I returned yesterday and snapped  a bunch of photos, I figured I might as well post them.

I was greeted at Kintetsu Nara Station by a desiccated old right wing politician (no pics of him) railing against foreigners and immigration, and against Abe for being a sellout to the nationalist movement. Welcome to Nara!  Not a great start to the day, but happily it did get better.  It doesn’t hurt that it was absolutely delightful weather. Felt positively cool – mid 80’s, modest humidity by Japanese standards, refreshing breeze, and most importantly – cloud cover. Easily the most tolerable day in weeks.

The other interesting thing was that I noticed the Nara deer bowing to some tourists, which is notable in itself, but what really surprised me is that apparently this is a really well-known thing and I’ve just never noticed (or read about) it before.  Apparently the deer have learned that if they “bow” (I wish I’d taken some video of it, but here’s an example) they get more of the “shika sembei” – the deer crackers sold by the truckload for ¥150 to tourists.  Pavlov would be proud.

The crane is at Yoshikien Garden, by the way.  The best part of any trip to Nara for me is usually Kasuga Taisha, which is always incredibly atmospheric and mysterious – especially when you go up the hill a bit and lose most of the crowd.

 

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5 comments

  1. S

    I really liked the historic center of Nara in general. Sure the famous spots are crowded with tourists (just like everywhere else) but you can easily get to more chilled spaces.

    I knew about deer bowing but I didn’t saw it when I visited.

    I don’t remember your earlier posts about Nara. Have you tried Toshodaiji/Yakushiji/Horyuji temples? The Horyuji site is pretty nice even if it’s a bit remote from the rest.

  2. Hoyuji is one of the top 2 or 3 places to see in Japan, IMO. It is a bit remote and takes a chunk out of a day, but it’s unique – nowhere else are you going to see what you can see there.

  3. hah the historic Nara, I’ve been there once, absolutely loved the atmosphere. Nara Park and all those deers. Amusingly enough in my own hometown there’s another Nara Park with cherry blossom and stuffs (since Nara is our sister city) so I felt almost magical to me to sit there in the “original” Nara Park.

  4. C

    I absolutely loved Kasuga Taisha, too, and have been lucky enough to visit it during the Wisteria’s bloom. From you photos, it looks like the amount of tourists isn’t overwhelming, which is also good. (:
    Glad that you had such a nice day, with great weather to boot!

  5. m

    The bowing deer is so kawaii! I need to revisit Nara. The only thing I sort of remember is some big wooden building and some big buddha. If I can visit only once, would early autumn (when the leaves just start to change colour) or late autumn (when say 75 to 80% of the leaves have already changed colour) be better?

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