Day 3: Going to Nara for the Candle Festival (or, What are those deer doing to that girl!?!)

So I’m only in Japan for two days and my soon-to-be-ex-roommate (he has moved out by now) is telling me that there’s a festival in Nara for the next couple days. I haven’t gone to Nara yet so I figure that I might as well go today, Sunday, as I will start training the next day. I make my way up to Nara earlier than the festival starts so that I can take pictures and see the sights around Nara.

So I decide I’ll go to a park in Nara first, which there are tons of. I, of course, have no idea what I’m in for. You know how they have this animal in America called deer? Well, they’re in Japan as well, but Nara treats deer differently. In Nara, they roam free. The city basically decided to give them a free pass. The stupid ones run in front of cars and die, but the smart ones stay in the park (around people, not cars) and get to munch on all the treats that people give them.

Feed Me!

Of course, there’s stipulations that people have to follow around the deer, but I’m not Japanese so I don’t have to follow those stipulations. I know, I know. I really do have to follow the stipulations, but I have no freaking idea what these stipulations are. You think you could read them? Don’t answer that, ’cause you can’t read them. You can, however, laugh. That’s part of the reason you come to this blog anyways, right?

I think the best way to summarize the sign is in five words. Write these five words in lots of languages on one giant sign:

Don’t piss off the deer!

You don’t want to make deer angry. You wouldn’t like deer when they’re angry. No seriously, one deer gave me a really bad paper-cut; I almost cried.

So after having fun wrestling deer in the park and then getting arrested in the park, I decide to see more of Nara. For brevity, I will turn this next part into a montage (cue the montage music): I found out that Nara has a neat and really large marketplace, that scooters are really really cheap in Japan (the license and driving school you have to attend costs more), that you can find white people anywhere (all I have to do is look in a mirrror!), and I solidified my belief that 100 yen shops are the greatest shop ever. (end the montage music).

So cut to nighttime and, thus, the festival. It really looked like it was going to rain so I brought an umbrella. While doing this it must have looked like I was getting something to eat for the deer, ’cause they ambushed me. That was fun.

Of course, I had no idea what to do or where to go so I followed the crowds of Japanese people. This was a good idea and I actually made it to the festival. It was really neat, you should’ve been there (nooooo! I want to live in America with my Blackberry and my government job. No…. don’t get mad Sam. It was a joke. Now…. now…… calm down. Everything is OK. Just climb down from the roof and let’s talk about it.). Since you couldn’t make it, I give you this picture that doesn’t even come close to capturing the mood, fun, and other cool adjectives of the festival.

This picture is only worth 472 words. Ha.

Now that you are left sobbing in your cushy chair while I am writing this on a floor made of straw I bid you adieu.