Nara, Japan

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What most people remember about Nara are the sacred deer, free to wander anywhere.

Sacred SPOILED deer, who are always checking you out for yummy deer biscuits.

They know they are important, or why else would humans create fountains in their likenesses?

... and buy them deer biscuits, as Russ is doing here.  Notice they don't take the biscuits left out in the open.

They wait until a tourist buys some deer biscuits, then they come in for the attack.

Jostling for position...

... signaling to their fellows, ...

... and pretending not to understand when the biscuits are gone.

Russ finally hit upon the perfect method of communicating with them, turning his cane into an "antler".

They don't like to take "no" for an answer.  This deer decided that the tourist brochure tasted as good as a biscuit.

The woman tried to get her brochure back...

... as schoolkids stopped to watch...

.. not realizing that they would become the next victims of these relentless beasts - run!

The deer were even fighting over who got to eat the students!

So Russ came over to show the deer who wore the antlers in this family.

But there were no hard feelings between Russ & the deer ...

... especially since they had a shared interest.

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