On the way to Kyoto we stopped by Nara for a rainy Disney-princess moment and the requisite photo of its lovely, soft-eyed, bowing deer.
The city of Nara, once the first permanent capital of Japan and the residence of the Emperor, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is so much more than its famous deer park – it has the old imperial palace, shrines and temples, for anyone looking to spend more than a few hours there.
Deer are revered as mythical protectors, and in Nara Park you can buy sika senbei to feed them. I was tempted to, but when I saw how they would crowd round the hapless (more often than not) kid (a few ended up shrieking and running away, pursued by the heavenly creatures) for a cracker, I decided not to.
Next stop was another Instagram magnet (or black hole): Fushimi Inari Taisha.
Anyone who’s ever been to Japan will have the shot of the Shinto shrine’s red torii in their gallery, and the masses of visitors crawling up and down the mountainside in the driving rain today were a testament to its popularity.
If you are looking for a spiritual experience, you won’t find it here.
No complaints about the tidiness of the commercialization, though – from the orderly souvenir shops to the rows of food stalls – got some takoyaki here nomnomnom- and the queues for omikuji (that bit of fortune-telling paper). I read that each torii was contributed by a Japanese business, too, so… well done?
The last stop for the day was the soaring, green bamboo grove of Arashiyama.
To get there, you drive past the wide and picturesque Hozu River, walk through the attractive town, and finally enter the forest.
In the rain, its otherworldly luminosity was dimmed, and yet I thought there was a palpable sense of tranquility that remained despite the tourist hordes we had arrived with. The bears agreed. Peace, finally.
Moses and Clancy, traveling bears
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