It's always great to take a break after the peak season of work. The definition of a "real break" to me is visiting another country as a tourist speaking a language and staying in a place that I am not familiar with. This autumn, my colleague, Karen and I had a chance to visit Kyoto, Osaka and Nara in Japan. That was a fantastic experience and today I am going to share with you the day when we walked in Nara.
Contract to the other sunny days in our vacation, the day we visited Nara was raining. Besides, after walking in Kyoto and Osaka for 5 days, we knew that one day pass was really important for our four aching legs. Therefore, right after arriving at Nara, we went to the Tourist Center to buy one-day bus pass. However, the narrator told us the best way to experience Nara was by walking and all the scenic spots are located in walking distance. She strongly recommended us walking instead of taking bus. Otherwise we would miss the beauty of Nara. We were persuaded.
On the way to the first destination, 興福寺with a national Buddhism museum, we saw the mascot of Nara, spotted dears梅花鹿. They are one of the most important assets to Nara. We were prohibited from feeding dears with improper food or playing with baby dears or we might be attacked by mother dears. Therefore, the only thing we did was taking pictures of them. Some of them were crouching, some of them were eating the grass and some of female dears were feeding baby dears. It was really amazing to be surrounded by spotted dears.
After visiting the second scenic spot, 春日大社, although the park and temples were impressive and wonderful, we were a little bit depressed by the non-stop rains and the long distance walking. The truth of so-called walking distance is that all the scenic spots are located from each other for at least one kilometer. In other words, for one destination, we had to walk about 2 kilometers back and forth. Thus we only finished two historic places around noon time. Karen and I decided to take a rest and have our lunch, two big juicy apples, we bought in the department store the day before.
We found a pavilion far away from dears and next to the walking trail. We were happy sitting in a dry area and stretching out our sore legs. We enjoyed the moment and saw a little dear approaching us. Karen though it was a good chance to took picture of it. However, when it stood in front of us and smelled our bags, we suddenly figured out that it was looking for apples, our meals. Without a second thought, I stood up and raised my apple with my right hand and grab the bags with my left hand then shouted to Karen, "Let's get out of here."
We successfully ran away and finally finished our apples on our way to the next destination. Nevertheless, when we arrived at 東大寺, there were more than one hundred dears wandering in front of it and waiting tourists to feed them with cookies. The streets were blocked by dears and their pupu were almost everywhere. Honestly, from my opinions, it's not good for deers to have that kind of habit asking for food, but to stop that unnatural situation, tourists and shops selling deers' cookies have to take most responsibilities.
Walking in Nara is really a good idea to experience the beauty of it. However, with my previous experiences, I would recommend you to visit there with the following conditions. First, pick up a sunny day. Second, wear a pair of comfortable shoes. Third, do not walk too much before you visit there. Fourth, do not eat any delicious fruit in an open area in the park. Fourth, please stop feeding animals or they would be spoilt and do not know how to live like themselves.
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