Oh Deer

An hour drive then, to the final stop in Nara. The attraction here was meant to be feeding and petting deer. I mean there was initially some novelty in seeing deer scattered randomly around a town (in train stations, sidewalks, flower gardens, the road..) but that soon wore thin and turned to sadness really. They looked sad, and sick, and disheveled. Some looked mentally impaired, one smashing his head against a tree. Many looked more like they longed for a merciful end then the happy cartoon images around the town. I felt they should be treated, not exploited.
None of us were touching, nevermind feeding the hoarde of sad creatures. Especially hearing recently of tick infections carried by deer, causing human fatalities. Escaping this, meant we rushed to the ticket booth of Todaiji Temple.
Until recently, Todaiji's main hall, the Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall), held the record as the world's largest wooden building, despite the fact that the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size. The massive building houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha. The entire complex was seriously impressive. The kids were awestruck.
Sadly, the trip back took longer than expected going back via Kyoto to get us in Osaka by 820. That left another 25min walk back to the hotel via a quick dinner. A big but memorable day for us all.もっと詳しく