I was once attacked by bambi
Okay so attacked might be a liberal description of the situation, perhaps playfully assaulted by a deer resembling Bambi is a more apt depiction. For those who have been to Nara Park, you’ll understand what I’m talking about…for those who haven’t let me paint a wonderful, ‘animal lover’s paradise’ picture for you. But first, this picture literally encapsulates the point I am trying to make: deers be hangry.
Nara warning sign – Grandma’s you’ve been warned!
Established in the 1800’s Nara park is one of the oldest parks in Japan. Located 45km outside of Kyoto, or approximately a 45 minute train ride away from Kyoto station, it costs approximately 710 yen and is also conveniently covered by the Japan Rail Pass. We took an early, express train to make the most of the day as we didn’t have much time to spend in the region.
Upon arrival at the JR Nara station, we were greeted by a couple of different coffee options, Starbucks included of course so I got my iced americano fix in thankfully, as well as this particularly cute character which is an indication of how delightful things were about to get (can you tell I love animals?).
Welcome to Nara!
A short walk through the town, a pleasant tree lined street with dining options and souvenir shops, we soon found a hint of the awesomeness that was to come – a single deer. Not just any deer, a friendly, law abiding, polite, Japanese deer that was waiting for the green walk symbol to cross the road between the two main park precincts. Yes you read that correctly, we witnessed a deer wait for the lights to change before it crossed the road. I’m sure there is a joke that could be made about this situation…
A compliant deer in Nara Park, Japan
After the glee of witnessing the smartest deer in the world wore off we entered the park, to be greeted by a herd of deer assembling around the many tourists taking photos and ignoring the warning signs – from my personal experience as soon as you are greeted by these majestic creatures any threat of being bitten, kicked, charged at or knocked down subsides and is replaced by the immediate need to purchase food and feed them.
And that we did, you can purchase shika senbei or deer crackers from street vendors all over the park for a small fee. You are given a small pack of neatly wrapped crackers, which I soon discovered was basically like crack for deer, these deer are hanging out for this stuff like a heroin addicts. I couldn’t unwrap the crackers fast enough to cater for the demand and was soon set upon by many deer – the next few minutes of my life was reminiscent of an early 90s sitcom whereby I ran around in circles being chased by a pack of frenzied animals while strangers pointed and laughed. There was laughter, there was silliness and yes – because it is me – there was swearing, sorry kids! See ridiculous account below…
Once I realised these deer were smarter than the average deer, I don’t know how I didn’t appreciate this as yet given we had just witnessed a deer crossing the road as a human, I had the ‘deer feeding operation’ under control:
Buy the crackers.
Unwrap them in secret.
Calmly feed the deer one at a time, resisting the urge to run around in circles creating a hyped-up demand situation where many more deer join in on the feeding frenzy.
Repeat (how can you not!).
Top tips
Here are some of the things I learned about the deer of Nara from this magical day:
Much like the people of Japan, the deer are beautiful, super smart and polite – I witnessed them bowing to me after I fed them treats, and if you don’t believe me google it! If they learned how to rock a pair of Gucci loafers they would be the full package…
Even if you learn the rule of the animal kingdom, there is still the potential for them to bite you. In my case they were largely trying to get into my pockets (possibly the one downfall to my aforementioned ‘unwrap the biscuits in secret plan’). I also suffered a rather comical bite to the butt – sadly no photographic evidence of this incident exists. For those of you that know me I am actually devasted about this – this is what all great Instagram posts are made of!
There are approximately 1200 wild Sika deer roaming around the area making for a rather long day of deer feeding if you so desire.
Feeding them once is never enough to satisfy an animal lover’s need to please these wonderful creatures, best to take plenty of coins.
They also try to steal your coffee – as much as I loved them nothing is coming between me and my coffee. I don’t care how many bites to the butt I sustained, I won that battle and it was worth it!
