Visit a paradise of cherry blossoms and peaceful deer
Nara Park in Japan, home to over 1,000 deer, is a fairytale kingdom under normal circumstances, but in the absence of tourists it’s a paradise. Fortunately, the park isn’t closed to locals, so photographer Kazuki Ikeda recently visited just as the cherry blossom leaves were falling to blanket the park in pink. (via Andrew Y., more at MyModernMet)
Oh for God’s sake is all I can say. I mean splutter splutter.
Ditto.
I am adding Pete’s name in here for his sake.
The petals on the nose! Petals on the nose!
That place looks like heaven.
That place looks amazing. Once we’re allowed to move freely about the planet again, I think I’m booking a trip to Japan. It’s been on my list for forever and this is just another huge reason to go.
I’m loving this new episode of the Cute and the Beautiful.
That place would be paradise to me, even without the sweet deer. 🌸
It was all so beautifully dream-like until that cookie appeared. Please DON’T feed wild animals. Even these docile-seeming deer can attack with sharp hoofs when threatened. And guess who gets, at the least, captured and moved away from people? As the rangers in Yosemite say “A fed bear is a dead bear.”
I was there during a holiday in Japan. You buy a little pack of kind of dry biscuit wafer things, the guide said the deer would politely wait and you could hand them the biscuits one by one.
This was not in fact the case. The deer practically mugged me for the biscuits, and chased me around trying to get to them. One of them bit me on my behind. Fortunately my friend was laughing too hard to film any of it.
It wasn’t my most dignified moment.
I’m dying with laughter at the mental picture. Sorry, NTFTOF.
Poor Fiona! Kinda amusing but scary at the same time. I remember as a kid, I was fascinated by goats for some reason. One time we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and there was a pen of goats so I went to investigate. Not sure what happened but when I went to leave, I had a whole line of goats following me! Somehow the gate got unlatched and of course, everyone thought I did something but I was innocent, I swear.
Found an interesting article about the deer because many people were thinking that with no tourists, the deer would starve but it looks like that’s not the case. It also explains how the cookies are just treats for them and they mainly forage for their food. I was glad to hear this news, because I was a little worried about how they were being fed.
https://soranews24.com/2020/03/30/with-foreign-visitor-numbers-to-nara-park-plummeting-are-the-citys-deer-in-danger-of-starving/
If I can’t feed them crispy crackers myself, I would contribute to a gofundme if need be.
Do you have any idea how much Japanese movie/tv studios would pay to recreate that opening scene?
I’m guessing a LOT of Pocky sticks.
Stars and Stripes did that when they first saw themselves in the mirror (especially Stripes). It was sitting behind the door in their room, leaning against the wall, so there was a little space behind it, and they kept looking back there for the other kitties.
I had a cat once who did the same thing. Then he actually leapt into the mirror to catch the other cat.
I could watch HOURS and HOURS of this footage!!
How did I miss this when I went to Japan in Cherry Blossom season?