Deer of Nara

We headed to Nara on a recommendation from a friend to see the local wild deer and the Tōdai-ji Temple. Despite their tame nature the deer of Nara are wild and tend to wander back into the forest for the night. During the day, they are the darlings of many tourists, and like others we caught the train there to get up and close with them. To say they were comfortable with people is an understatement as they are treated with respect as the representatives of the gods by the locals and media darlings by tourists. We all enjoyed patting them, and we became more popular with the deer once we started feeding them cherry blossoms. They really seemed to enjoy eating the blossoms without getting so aggressive as when they were fed the deer biscuits offered by some tourists.