---
title: 'The Deer of Nara'
date: '2026-03-29 14:00'
template: entry
published: true
hero_image: ''
lat: '34.6851'
lng: '135.8048'
location_city: 'Nara'
location_country: 'Japan'
weather_temp_c: 17
weather_desc: 'Partly cloudy'
---

The deer at Nara are not afraid of you. This is the first thing you notice — not just that they tolerate humans, but that they regard you with a kind of benign indifference that borders on contempt. They walk into traffic. They push their noses into your pockets. They bow, which sounds enchanting and is, in practice, a manoeuvre to knock crackers out of your hand faster.

I bought a small bundle of *shika senbei* — deer crackers — from a vendor at the park entrance. They were gone in about forty-five seconds to a small gang of deer who appeared from nowhere and surrounded me in a tight semicircle. One bit my sleeve. Another headbutted a woman walking past who was not even involved.

Todai-ji temple is at the far end of the park and contains the largest bronze Buddha in Japan. The building is immense — apparently it was rebuilt at two-thirds the original size in the 18th century and is still the largest wooden structure in the world. The Buddha sits in the dim interior looking calm about this. There is a wooden pillar near the back with a hole cut through its base the same width as one of the Buddha's nostrils. Schoolchildren queue to crawl through it. Wisdom awaits on the other side.

The train back to Kyoto takes 45 minutes through flat agricultural land. The deer do not follow you.
