Deer Season

[Celebration]

Recently talked to a deer hunter who was waiting for bow season, then came back to look at my Japan pictures to find night shots, and remembered that there is at least one place that the deer are safe at all times--Nara, Japan.

This is the Wikipedia entry that explains it--

Tame deer roam through the town, especially in Nara Park. These deer might not be considered "tame" should the visitor not have any "shika sembei - Deer Biscuits" when they see them.

According to the legendary history of Kasuga Shrine, a mythological god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital of Heijō-kyō. Since then the deer have been regarded as heavenly animals, protecting the city and the country.<6> Snack vendors sell small biscuits to visitors so they can enjoy feeding the deer. Some of the deer have learned to bow in response to tourists' bows. They nudge, jostle, and even bite for food.

So, in honor of all the deer that are currently being hunted in West Tennessee, and other places, here is a nod to the Nara deer.

Typical scene


Behind the fence


Down the steps


You judge the "tameness" of the deer






Among the types of deer in Nara are decorative


Inflated (oh the Buddha with the horns is VERY controversial)


And, promotional (train station)


Posted for the Bambis all over the world, dealing with the deer season.

[Mira]

1. Very educational, pretty, and fun. You know

how I love getting (and doing) little reports about "other places". Thank you Celebration, for posting this, you homage to deer in the season, and tell me, is that you in the pictures?

(I know I promised you a story about the Queen Mary, it's on my mind, but I don't have the time now)

[Celebration]

3. not me, I'm the photographer

But she IS related to me ;)

It's kind of surreal in Nara, there are so many deer--deer, Buddhist temples, shrines, and more deer.

And the deer can be VERY intimidating.

Can't wait for Queen Mary. Yes, I love reading little stories through photos, too, and putting them together. I just happened to remember the Nara deer when I had the hunting conversation.

[Mira]

6. OK - I thought you might have sneaked this in - and I thought maybe we DO

have young people in the regulars.

[JeffR]

2. Wonderful, Celebration!

The framing of the second shot is very artful. And I love the last one. It would make - dare I say it - a fine black & white.

[Celebration]

4. you know what

I think you might be right about the black and white, in this instance. I'll try it, and if it looks a lot better, I'll post it here tomorrow.

[JeffR]

5. Fingers crossed...

[Celebration]

7. Problem is--

Can't stop at one. All of these are from Nara. I think I like the antique effect on the stone lanterns rather than the sepia. Another one I made to look like a staight black and white tourist photo from the 50s, and the last one isn't black and white, just desaturated (a lot!) All from Nara











I definitely prefer the first and third ones over color. They were all experiments.

[JeffR]

11. Excellent!

I love the last one.

[Tindalos]

15. These are great

I love your pictures of Japan.

I only saw one deer when I was there, in the mountains outside Tokyo. There was a loud commotion in the lab one night, with everyone suddenly running around yelling but no one could translate what was going on for me. One of the other grad students managed to explain that one of the techs had seen "a ghost or maybe an alien" and we were all going out to see it. Well, about a dozen of us piled into the back of an old pickup and bounced down the main dirt road, coming to a screeching halt beside a small clearing. Darting into the dark forest, lit only by moonlight, was the small shadow of a deer. Or it might have been an alien or a ghost. There are no pictures to prove otherwise.


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[Celebration]

16. You are back!

I hope you have recovered well for the holidays. Your alien/deer adventure in Japan sounds like a fun break from the lab. I think I probably would not attempt to drive in Japan, on the left.

[Tindalos]

17. Yes, I'm back!

:hi:

The alien/deer was one of many surreal moments over there. I didn't drive there either. Besides, why drive when they have all those cool trains?


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[Sheepshank]

8. true story

Over Thanksgiving, my daughter, a friend and her daughter and I were driving from Utah to CA for a soccer tournament. Caveat...I usually wear glasses for distance vision. Reading and pc work I'm fine without glasses.

Anyway, we are driving along I-15 on our merry way when "Whoa" we hame upon a flock of huge vultures!! At least with my quick glance, glasses-less, distance vision impediment they were vultures. Picture a fuzzy looking white head (actually the deer's butt), long hooked beak (the deer's tail). Long folded down wings (the deer's brown haunches) leading down to long gangly legs. I screamed for the driver to pull over, I NEEDED to take pictures. Your deer pictures turned out much better :)

[Celebration]

9. LOL

I guess you are more used to seeing vultures than deer on the highway. Honestly, around here I don't like driving on country roads at night because of the deer. My hubby hit one once, and it could have been really bad. It tore up his truck. I know of someone who was killed when her car hit a deer. And, yes, even on the interstate, there are deer.

In Nara, the deer were just amiably walking around in the middle of the daytime, interacting with tourists. But it's hard to get pictures of them here because they are mostly nocturnal and moving (and scarcer, though definitely not scarce).

Our 1000+ acre park here has plenty of deer, but you never see them until dusk. The park closes at sunset so you have to time it perfectly to see them. Dusk isn't the easiest time to get pictures of moving animals. I've walked all over that place and only once did I see a single deer in the daytime. I did not have my camera out at the time.

[qnr]

10. Beautiful series of photos. I've been seeing a lot of them online recently. Are

they more active in particular seasons? I know they're always there, just wondering why there would be a sudden spike in photographs appearing.

[Celebration]

12. all I can think of is deer season!

Maybe other people, like me, started thinking of the Nara deer when deer season rolled around again.

These were taken in April.

What this lacks is a big picture of the park outside the main temple. I imagine there were hundreds of deer there, mingling with people trying to eat lunch on the picnic tables. I wish I had taken a picture of that.

[qnr]

13. Could be. Might just be coincidence though. I've seen some funny ones of

them coming up to tables for handouts :)

[Celebration]

14. I bet I picked up on

the collective consciousness of Nara deer picture postings!

:silly:

They didn't bother us until a school group came, and one of the kids used food to lure them away from their group, and towards our group. And, of course, my daughter overdramatized the whole thing by running away from them and then jumping up on the table.