Nara

Day 01 –
As soon as we arrive in Nara, we head straight to the Tourist Office at the train station for our first stamp of the city. Here, of course, there are deer everywhere, so the stamp has a deer on it. We then settle into our new house, right next to the train station… Sigh… We are already missing Kyoto. The charm of a Japanese house seems far away now as our new home is quite small, not very charming and above all, located just below the train tracks. Like really, just below them… So every five minutes, the apartment is shaking and we hear the train as if we were on the platform. The next two nights are going to be rough…

We don’t linger too long in the apartment. Côme is eager to see the deer. Doo told him that they wandered freely in the city and that they could be petted and fed. So we head to the city center, next to the forest where the deer and the temples are located. It’s a short walk and as soon as we get close to the forest we spot our first deer roaming freely. We buy some special deer treats and Côme is delighted to give it to them. The deer are particularly gluttonous and eat all the cookies in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, an old gentleman gives Côme some acorns that the deer eat just as greedily. It’s already getting late though, the night is falling and, to Côme’s great despair, we have to go home. “Don’t worry Côme! We’re here for two more days! We’ll be back tomorrow morning and the day after to feed the deer!”

Day 02 –
Today, Côme has only one thing on his mind: feed the deer. So, from the first hour in the morning, we’re already back there, in the forest, to feed them. We buy more deer cookies but once again, the treats don’t last long, and once again Doo gets extorted (“Pshhhh NO!!!” he shouts at a not so innocent deer that is picking his pocket…). So we go hunting for acorns and come across a gold acorn mine a little further in the forest. We then spend a good chunk of time collecting the acorns and we head towards deer packs with our pockets full. Well… it seems that we’re not such good gatherers because the deer quickly let us know that these acorns aren’t to their liking. One of them is even sticking her tongue out at us… Pffff!!!!

So we decide to leave these rather precious and, for some, rather rude deer to go picnicking in a vast clearing. The sun is shining and the place is just beautiful. When we’re done eating, Côme gives the end of his sandwich to a stag and we then resume our walk in the forest, trying to feed every deer we meet with our acorns. Apart from a tired old stag, no deer wants to eat them… What are we going to do with all these acorns??? Well, we finally realize that the deer are just slightly lazy and that once we remove the shell from the acorns, they actually eat them. So we will spend a good half hour “peeling” the acorns using large stones while being stared at by the many incredulous passers-by on their way to the temple. A group of students will even come to ask us “What are you doing?”. In the end, most deer won’t even eat these carefully stripped acorns… The ones who did must have taken pity on us for all the labor…

We then head to a temple with a giant statue of Buddha. Côme asks us a lot of questions. He is impressed by the Buddha and intrigued by the demons on His side. After this visit, we head to a temple on top of a hill. The sun is already setting and the view is magnificent. We stop for a while and talk about Christmas which is approaching fast. We tell Côme that this year, we will spend Christmas under the sun. “So, this year! Santa will be wearing a t-shirt!!” – “Yes Côme, he sure will.” 🙂

Day 03 –
Today, we head back to the deer, the forest and the temples but this time, we’re taking another path. After playing tag for a bit, we find a path in the forest amidst stone lanterns. There, deer are eating acorns and as we approach them, we notice that these acorns are different. They are small and black. So we pick up a few and hand them to other deer. This time they are the right ones! The deer are enjoying the treats! So, once again, we spend a good chunk of time collecting these little acorns. We have finally found THE acorn spot with acorns that deer love.

We’ll stay the entire day in this part of the forest. It’s beautiful and mysterious. The paths are surrounded by hundreds of stone lanterns. Côme is having a great time feeding the deer, venturing between the lanterns, making a maple leaf magically fly above his hand and reassuring his mom after falling down twice: “Mom! No need to worry! I know how to manage my body. No advice needed…”. The day passes by very quickly and this time, there will be no acorns left. The deer ate them all!

In Nara, Côme:
Did not understand: why a boy forced a deer to eat paper.
Learnt: that deer ate acorns.
Loved: feeding the deer.

Julia:
Didn’t understand: why there were deer in Nara.
Learnt: that deer are delicate in choosing their acorns.
Loved: seeing Japanese people greeting deer with a bow before feeding them (and so the well-mannered deer come to us and bow to ask us for something to eat).

Doo:
Didn’t understand: the moment of panic between deer and teenagers.
Learnt: that the deer cakes weren’t actually very good.
Liked: the little hug/headbutt of a deer to be given food.