Japan Day 5: Rest

After the exhausting 14 hours on Fujisan yesterday, I got a good 10 hours of sleep last night and awoke for a day of touring. My family left Tokyo down toward Kyoto, and then to Nara. I had never heard of Nara before now--mostly because I have never studied Japan with much interest.

Nara was the first capital of Japan and now seems to be mostly a tourist place. They have what they claim to be the largest bronze Buddha, the largest pagoda, and a city park filled with 1,000 tame deer.

We saw the pagoda today, offended some Buddhist faithful with our fun near the temples and stuff, and then strolled through the park. There were deer everywhere. They really were tame. Like most "tame" wild animals, they don't necessarily like humans, they just want food from them.

These deer weren't looking to be petted, they just wanted a biscuit treat. There were funny signs around warning about how to treat the deer. After finding the Buddha closed, we wandered into what apparently was a deer nursery. We found a small area in a park with knee-high ferns where several does were looking after their babies--some of these were still awkward on their feet.

We also came upon a single adult doe leading maybe 15 little ones behind her. It looked like a teacher on a field trip with her little charges behind her. I got some video of her telling the little ones to cross the road.

Anyway, it was a nice laid-back day after the rough trip up and down Fuji. I hope to post pictures and video tomorrow.