deer in the headlights

Ever wondered what it would look like? Because here's my actual reaction to a real live deer in mine:

Here's the thing - these deer are not normal. They're totally tame. And smart. Well, maybe other deer are smart, but I've never been headbutted by wild deer, so I can't adequately judge their intelligence levels. And these tame deer have a particularly obnoxious level of street smarts - they actually "beg" for food. As in they bite at your clothes and your fingers. However, in Japan they are a protected species, thought to be sacred, so you can't bite back. Our tour guide told us that if you find a dead deer in your front yard, you better hurry and move it to your neighbor's, as you will not only be fined heavily, but you will also have all sorts of bad luck.

So anyhow, yesterday in Hiroshima, these deer are just chasing the tourists around, begging for food, pulling at their t-shirts, trimming their fingernails. However, you're not allowed to feed them there - signs are posted letting you know why it's unhealthy for them. But today in Nara (a city very near Kyoto that has the biggest Buddha, not to be confused with the second biggest Buddha in Kamakura), we visited the national deer park, at which you're actually encouraged to feed the little monsters (you too can have deer slobber on your fingers for just Y150 - about a buck fifty - the cost of a stack of "deer crackers").

And to prove their insane intelligence, this fellow, upon finding one tourist's hands void of food stuffs, stole her brochure instead. And ate it whole. Took him about five minutes to get the trifold down. And no amount of coaxing, tugging or bribing with real food would get Rudolph's relative to release his kung fu jaw grip on the thing.



Brilliant.

But still, Jodi made us stand by the creatures that I was so entirely unimpressed with, no matter how sacred they were, and pose for a picture. Here's how it went:

And perhaps the best moment is when Kimmy got nudged by his antler and asked, "Oh my gosh - are those real?" Actually, they just wear antler headbands. Those gullible tourists. ;) But to her credit, the antlers are strangely soft and fuzzy and feel pretty much like the headbands you can buy for your own head in the gift shops.

If you were wondering.