Oh Deer!

  • June 8, 2026

As with every onsen I’ve stayed in this one rotates the gender of the baths periodically, so this morning I had a different outdoor experience that was even better than last night! Surrounding the bath are waterfalls, heavy foliage and even a torii gates (!) and this ambience made my dawn soak extremely relaxing, suitably preparing me for another big day.

Would you believe I saw some deer?

While there were loads of tourists yesterday in the rain, today the sun was out and tourist numbers were bonkers. Even at 9 am when I set out, there were much bigger crowds around the deer than I saw yesterday.

Many deer congregate at the edge of the park closest to the station, since they’ve learned that’s where most tourists first encounter them. What happens is everyone goes agog when they see the deer, lingering and taking many photos, and Mia importantly buying deer crackers! By the time most tourists have continued further into the park the thrill has worn off since there are deer everywhere!

But Nara is more than just the deer, and I explored the shrines and temples of the park today as well. Most of what I saw today I’ve seen before, but as I said it’s been a decade since I was last here so I wanted to refresh my memories. The building above is the famous Daibutsuden – the largest wooden building in the world – which houses this:

That’s Daibutsu, a fifty-foot tall Buddha statue. Over 1250 years old, this is one of the most famous sights in all of Japan. When I was there today I shared the building with what seemed like a thousand school kids, who themselves were only a fraction of the screaming hordes of children that i saw in Nara today. To say the deer excited them was an understatement!

It was starting to warm up after the Buddha, and I observed the deer behavior was notably different from yesterday. While in the rain they were very active, today for them seemed like a rest day and many of them were just loafing.

The boys have impressive antlers right now, and they’re so relaxed you can touch them and they hardly react. The antlers feel flocked and slightly warm. Here’s a macro photo of what one looks like close up:

It’s only the fact that I’m basically a local in Japan that these handsome beasts accept me. If you visit Nara, you’ll want to pay attention to the warning signs:

I headed further east into Nara park and came upon a series of temples built on a sloping hill. These looked ancient and were very scenic and – since I was early and the deer were uncommon here – mostly empty of tourists. The clouds had returned now (it was around noon) and humidity descended like a heavy blanket so I was overjoyed to find a shaded rest house and a drink machine containing a life saving beverage:

When I rose from this brief repose I felt a twinge in my leg. Perhaps all this activity had caught up with me, and I hobbled slightly as I continued on. Providence smiled on me that moment since I came upon a small shrine to a dove spirit, and didn’t hesitate to purchase an ema (wishing plaque) and beseech the god for aid. Here’s my wish:

After only a few steps I thought I heard the flutter of a doves wing and feel my pain immediately disappear almost as if it had never existed in the first place! Maybe wishes can come true!

I saw a lot of babies today, which was interesting because I saw none yesterday. These were favourites of the tourists, and unfortunately I saw a few being harassed by people approaching them when signs (obviously) said they shouldn’t.

And then I purchased an ice cream, and as I was setting up a selfie with a picturesque shrine in the distance (which required me to crouch), this happened:

The sneaky little girl wanted my ice cream! Or maybe she just wanted to be in the photo 🙂

I’m so glad I stayed here. For most visitors to Japan Nara is only a several hour day trip and I doubt many ever return. But I had very fond memories of this place and this stay has reminded me why. If you’re ever in Japan, be sure to come and visit the deer!

Later in the day I went to a nearby mall to visit a ‘Goldfish Museum’, the less said about the better. Fortuitously the mall also had a gigantic Round 1 game center in it, and I happily fed medals into the Monster Hunter medal game for a half hour or so. Apparently my medal game luck hasn’t abated, since for at least half that time I was winning much more than I was putting in and I had visions of walking away from buckets of medals like KLS and I did in January!

As I was about to leave the mall I noticed this sign:

What this?!? They use AI to make (free) stickers of photos?!? I set a land speed record walking to the booth and airdropping a photo to a helpful young man, and in about two minutes he handed me this:

This one is going on a postcard tonight!

It’s dusk now and the tourists are all heading back to Kyoto or Osaka or Tokyo. The shops are beginning to close and (as the hotel girl that speaks some English claimed) the deer are heading to ‘the jungle’! Could it be they are secretly wild beasts who only come to town in the day to be fed by charmed tourists? I’m skeptical, but then I’m also too tired to go out and see if they’re still there after dark.

That’s a quest for the next time I visit Nara 🙂

Little Bobdog’s Big Adventure

  • June 7, 2026

Another day another journey, this time on Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. As usual the train was extremely comfortable and after yesterday’s exertion I fought off sleep after enjoying my hog sandwich:

Kyoto wasn’t my final destination, just a step on the way. Moments after arriving (the bullet train from Tokyo took about two hours) I hopped on another train and headed for Nara, where I will stay the next two nights.

It began raining almost immediately after we’d left Kyoto, and it was fun to watch the rain hitting the large scenic windows of the train. I knew wet weather had been forecast, and wondered what effect this would have on the famous deer that roam the city.

A quick meal upon arrival, and then I dropped my suitcase at my hotel. It seemed much fancier than I expected. More on that later…

It’s been almost ten years since I was last here, and judging by their reaction the deer had missed me!

They weren’t even slightly bothered by the rain, and as usual roamed around the large ‘park’ east of the city going where they wanted and completely unfazed by the throngs of tourists!

Something about me seemed to interest them, and even before I purchased ‘deer crackers’ to feed them a few had nibbled on my (fashionably pink) shirt!

When I actually bought the crackers things got insane. I was immediately surrounded by deer who aggressively assaulted me for crackers! One even put his front legs on my chest and stood up as I raised the crackers in the air! The above is a still from a video I took during this feeding incident. I had intended to give a cracker to the one at back but another swooped in from the left and took them all!

I love these guys. They’re cute and friendly and it’s wonderful how they tolerate tourists so well, even when they don’t feed them.

By mid afternoon the rain had worsened so I took refuge in a covered shopping street near my hotel. This was a hotbed of interesting shops including a stamp collecting store, a vintage anime shop and a fascinating used bookstore. Since Nara is a major tourist destination there’s also a bevy of souvenir shops, and I was able to find many good postcards!

I stumbled upon a traditional Japanese shooting range where you use a compressed air gun to shoot cork pellets. If you knock down the targets, they’re yours!

I’ve got no real experience with firearms, but you can probably tell from my form in the above photo that I mastered them almost immediately. No less than two of my seven bullets (29%) hit targets, which is no mean feat considering I stood a whole six feet away!

The prizes (terrible candy) were of course trash, but one gave me an idea for today’s blog title 🙂

My hotel is Japanese style (I’ll sleep on a futon on the floor) and not just the biggest hotel room I’ve ever had in Japan but also the biggest I’ve ever had anywhere! It sleeps ten!! I didn’t know this when I booked it, but it’s a comically large room that I’m sure I’ll be very comfy in 🙂

I just got back from a soak in their outdoor onsen, which was amazing. It’s raining heavily now and half the bath has a semi-covered roof (as you can see in the photo above I took from their website) that the rain dribbled through. I sat in the steaming hot water with cold rain falling onto my head and it was absolutely heavenly.

The rain will continue tomorrow but much lighter than today. While I will of course go and see deer and historic sights, my hotel is so well located I won’t have to use public transit and will be able to easily return for a soak or siesta. In other words, a bit of rest and relaxation would be nice 🙂

This Could Be Heaven Or This Could Be Hell

  • June 6, 2026

I left my hotel before 6 am this morning. I had a place to be and a long trek to get there. My destination was Nokogiriyama, a mountain on the coast of the southeast side of Tokyo Bay.

I’d wanted to visit for years, but it was either too hot, too cold or too wet on previous trips. Today the god of day trips smiled on me (in more ways than one perhaps, as will become clear) and I seized my chance!

It took two trains and a taxi – and over two hours – to reach the port of Kurihama, about 50 km south of Tokyo. Waiting for me there was this:

That’s the Shiruhama Maru, one of the two Ferris ran by the Tokyowan Ferry company. They do hourly crossings of the bay, each of which takes about 40 minutes. These are car ferries and quite large, and there’s seating for hundreds on board. It was very inexpensive: a return ticket only cost me ¥1100 (under $7).

That’s one of the seating areas. There’s five levels on the ship, the lowest for vehicles and the top being open air. While I was boarding I saw a lot of bikers riding on together, so there must have been some event on the other side.

Incidentally I could have also gotten to the mountain by taking (three) trains around the bay clockwise, but don’t you agree a ferry crossing is more fun?

Even before we set out I bought a pluto pup corn dog and ate it in two bites. There was no concern of me bringing it back up from seasickness because I’m widely known as a salty sea dog. But had I known what I was in for I would have purchased and eaten all the corn dogs!

The bay crossing was wonderful. There’s a lot of traffic including many nearly identical small boats like the one above. Most of these had a half dozen or more men fishing off the sides so I assume that’s what they’re for, but I don’t know if there leisure or commercial.

We passed a lighthouse with a barren rock adjacent. To my amazement there were fisherman on the rock! There was no sign of any boats, and it was still early (about 8 am) so I wonder how they got there and what time?

There’s the other ferry heading in the opposite direction. They keep a good distance between the boats: I zoomed in a lot for this photo.

The boat had different stamps at each terminal and onboard. Some of you may get one on a postcard…

After docking at Kanaya port I walked about fifteen minutes to a ropeway station. There’s several ways to get to the top of Nokogiriyama including hiking and driving but I naturally chose the ropeway, even though I feared it was a bit of a copout. What little I knew…

The ropeway was great, especially since the weather was beautiful and visibility was great. Looking toward the bare rock of the mountain itself, large geometric sections were missing. This is evidence of old quarries from hundreds of years ago, but the cuts in the stone are so large as to seem the work of giants.

What little research I had done on the mountain said to bring a coat since it would be several degrees colder at the top (due to wind) and I came prepared. Once again… reality would be quite different!

The ropeway station has lookouts built on top with expansive views in almost every direction. The above is me looking east at the town of Hota. Unlike what I’d read there was no wind, and indeed the sun was starting to burn off the morning clouds and it felt warmer than it had down on the water.

The mountain is famous not only for its picturesque views but also for several Buddha statues. These are part of a temple complex a short walk from the ropeway station, which I headed towards.

This walk was uneven and traversed unworked rock steps. Climbing down these was no small feat, and almost before the ropeway station was out of view the windbreaker I’d donned was off. When I reached the entrance to the temple complex I was sweating and a bit exhausted.

And my hell had only just begun.

After paying the entrance fee (¥700) you’re free to explore the several paths between the attractions in any way you wish. A quick glance at the map suggested I do it roughly clockwise, and almost immediately I came upon the above.

The worked stone is the remains of what was once a quarry (over 250 years ago) but today these cyclopean walls are the perfect avenue for what lies just out of view:

That’s a 100-foot tall relief of Kannon carved into the wall. For scale, the sign at the top of the steps was taller than me! Standing here alone as I did this morning was quite a humbling experience.

A bit further on was the ‘hell lookout’ which is at the very tip of an overhang hundreds of feet above the forest below (the mountain itself is about 1050 feet tall). Here’s me at that spot:

While I was there I noticed a second lookout just a bit further on, and I took a photo which I think does a better job of showing the sheer drop. For scale look at the two people in the top right:

It was now time to head to the giant buddha statue. I’d only been on the mountain maybe a half hour at this point and I was hot and sweaty and somewhat exhausted from the stairs. But if the few flights I’d climbed had been difficult, what was in store for me was just hell.

There’s so many stairs, well hidden by the trees and the curves of the mountain. Every flight was worse than the previous and there always seemed to be another:

Some went up, some went down. In end the it hardly mattered because both were equally tiring. There wasn’t a lot of people on the mountain this morning but those that I saw were as defeated by the stairs as I was.

In total, I climbed (either up or down) somewhere above 1800 stairs today. This is about three times the number of stairs I climbed when I went to the Eiffel Tower, and 80% more stairs than at Yamadera last year, a climb which nearly finished me.

Indeed, this was the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. There were times when I had to break for minutes at a time halfway up a flight, and I even considered sitting but didn’t because I feared I wouldn’t be able to stand again.

One time I paused, gasping for breath, and two tiny muntjac deer ran across the path in front of me! They weren’t much bigger than dogs and disappeared into the forest before I could grab my phone. By then it had become hot (about 25C/80F) and the humidity was evil and I had no idea how many more stairs I had left to navigate.

Every now and then I passed a collection of these small statues. There are about 1500 of them in the mountain, and represent souls who reached nirvana. They were carved over 200 years ago and many vandalized during times of religious persecution in Japanese history.

And then I reached the giant (over 100 feet) Buddha! I had him entirely to myself but didn’t linger since I was so exhausted. The only toilet on the mountain is near this guy, but in a cruel twist you have to go down (and then up) another punishing flight of stairs to reach it!

I staggered back to the ropeway, dragging myself up interminable staircases. I stopped to admire this fellow hurrying across the path, and briefly considered if he was poisonous and stung me it may have been a merciful release. I was beyond ruined at this point, and knew that despite the wonderful views and serene surroundings I would never return here because once in a lifetime is enough for all these stairs!

When I got to the ropeway I almost fell into the carriage, hitting my head as I did. The operator asked if I was alright, and I gestured and whispered yes because I didn’t know how to say in Japan the pain in my head hardly mattered because I was more or less already dead anyway.

I rode the ferry back, then two trains and by mid afternoon was back in Akihabara. The sea air was good for my old bones and I recovered quickly, and even now many hours later I’ve almost forgotten the exertion. I’m very glad I went to Nokogiriyama today, and I hope the photos give you some idea of the heaven and hell I experienced 🙂

It turns out I had picked the right day to get away from Akihabara, since it was bonkers with people today. In fact this may have been the busiest I’ve ever seen it! There were two free events going on (Good Smile Fest 2026 and a launch party for the mobile game Neverness to Everness) and people turned out in droves to participate.

There seemed to be many parts to the NTE launch event, and the above photo shows some cosplay. The girls are surrounded by a wall of people photographing them, and to the right was a (long!) line of other people (all guys) who were being given 60 second chances to take photos from right in front of the girls. It was crazy and popular and well organized and I’m sure there’s thousands of photos of the girls online already.

I was too far away to get a good shot, and the above is the best I could do (there were other girls too). Professional cosplayers are impressive these days!

I wandered over to the Good Smile event but the line to get in was blocks long so I immediately gave up. I’d spent more than enough time in the sun today and a hot bath was calling…