Nara Deer Park and Todaiji

Many of you reading have probably heard of Nara, at least in passing. It's the location of Daibutsu, aka Birushana, aka the biggest flippin' Buddha you've ever seen in your life. It's also the location of some incredibly tame, incredibly insane, incredibly aggressive deer that only want you for your 150-yen crackers.

Caution: Deer.  No kiddin', Nara!

Getting swarmed by deer.  That worried look on my face isn't just for show.  These guys were pushy.

Ryan experiences the unique sensation of being surrounded by greedy, overly familiar deer.  They're fun, but kind of scary.

Ryan scolds a deer.  A lot of good it probably did.  They're incorrigible.

Ouch!  A deer headbutts me in the pelvis while his comrade to the left gets possessed by Satan and uses his dark powers to manifest an orb directly over his head.

Ryan tried to give some crackers to the more mild-mannered lady deer, but the overbearing males kept getting in the way.

The pathway to Todaiji, home of the Great Buddha.  Covered with deer.

Deer swarm a family.  Right after this photo was taken, the little girl ran away screaming.

A baby deer!

A warning sign.  We saw the deer do all these things and more during our brief visit.

The gateway to Todaiji.  Normally I'm annoyed by snow, but in this case it made everything even prettier.

Todaiji is colossal!  Pictures cannot do it justice.

The Great Buddha himself!

Check out the people at the bottom of the picture for scale.  No joke -- that's one gigantic Buddha!

A deer chews on a chain.  We saw several deer doing this.  What are they -- teething?

A deer stands in the way of a sports cat.  To the left, you can see my mittened hand beckoning the thing to safety.

An ancient pagoda built by one of Japan's few empresses.

Sento-kun!  Apparently every Japanese city needs to have a mascot.  Osaka's was Billiken, Nara's is Sento-kun.  A rather bashful-looking fellow!