Nara Park in Japan is most famously known for its wild (but generally people-friendly deers). It also houses the Tōdai-ji Buddhist Temple and is a common hot spot for tourists. But the real question is, are the deers safe enough to bring your kids there?
*If you do go, make sure you bring cash for both the rice treats and the Tōdai-ji Temple!*
The Deers
Do the Deers Bite?
How Many Kids were There?
The Temple
The Deers
The Nara deers are actually a type of Sika deer that have been in the region for since prehistoric times. They have lived specifically around this area for over 1,000 years. they were considered sacred messengers of the Gods and killing one was a capital crime punishable by death until 1637. After WWII, they were demoted (RIP lol) from “divine” status to protected “national treasures” and were to be protected as natural monuments as opposed to religious entities.
Over the years, they have been acquainted with humans. When you arrive at the entrance, a lady will give you a small batch of rice cakes to feed the deers for 200Yen ($1.23). The rice cakes do have a cut-off point as not to overfeed the deers, and are made of rice bran, wheat flour and water. They are not nutritious, necessarily, but are easily digestible.
Because of so much human interaction, the deers have learned to bow, in order to get more treats. Some won’t, but many will, known as a type of behavioral conditioning. I get treats when I bow my head and therefore, bowing my head gets more treats and the behavior continues. You can see a video of a bowing deer here.
There are deers frankly all over, so it’s not possible to miss any! When I had gone originally, I thought there would be maybe a couple, but there are hundreds of them!
The deers are mostly pretty healthy-looking, you may notice in the photos below that some of them have little bud-antlers. I don’t know who, but someone will come around and clip the antlers to avoid them getting in fights or brawls with each other. If the antler is hard and fully grown, cutting is painless. It is just like clipping human fingernails or hair. Cutting to the base is more painful as that’s where the quick or corium is, kind of like cutting your own nails to close to the base or if you have pets, dog/cat nails.
Do the Deers Bite?
I’m not going to lie, they definitely can. I had gotten my bag nipped a few times. Remember, these are wild animals. They are not domesticated. Having said that, there are some that are quite placid and calm. Once you bring out the food, not as much! Our tour guide, Hokona had made a disclaimer that the tour organization is not responsible for any bites, etc. Having said that, it’s nothing that creates marks and it’s not like (from what I’ve seen) that they don’t let go. It’s more of a nip- or a “Hey! Gimme that food in your hand!” Now whether that feels like the same nip coming from a 2 year old to a 28 year old, completely different story. You’ve been warned!
But truly, some of them are just chilling by the shade, hanging out. And yes, you can pet them and take selfies haha.
How Many Kids were There?
When I went, it was in late-May and there was 1 toddler that I saw a many school-age kids. I think it can be a great family experience, as long as you watch your child and don’t let your 2 year old handle the feeding aspect while 15 deer crowd him.
The Temple
The Temple is the other big aspect of Nara Park, although there are other temples in surrounding places and lovely scenery as you walk through the park, whether it be shrines, man-made architecture of the pure greenery.
Tōdai-ji Temple is a Buddhist temple that used to be one of the powerful Seven Great Temples in Nara. The architecture aimed to imitate Chinese temples from the Tang dynasty and the building itself is world-famous for housing the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) which is one of the largest bronze Buddha statues in the world.
The statue is 49 feet tall, enshrines in the Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden), one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. Unfortunately, the building has burned down before, but Japan is used to that with its wooden buildings and was rebuilt each time!
Looking up at these giant statues was both mesmerizing and fascinating. The gravity of how large they are is something else! In addition to the statues, there are also models of the buildings along the side of the walls. Contrastingly, they are not large, but rather tiny replicas.
Do I Recommend Nara Park?
I absolutely do. I had gone with Viator and found it to be a really lovely time. The activity of Viator gets 5 stars, with most complaints being about the additional cost of things or the activity not starting at Nara or not getting a free ride back to the train station (which is all in the disclaimer of what the tour includes and doesn’t include). I thought it was an amazing time and am so glad I got to experience this before I left Japan. How many times can you say that you fed wild deers, took selfies with them and then saw one of the largest bronze Buddha statues in the world!? Not many, unless you go to Nara, I would assume!
Cheers friends & Travelers!
~Sho, Founder of Backroad Butterflies ~
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