Nara Park

As our time in Australia was winding down, we started pricing plane fares back to the USA. On a whim, we started looking at the price of fares to places in between Sydney and San Francisco, thinking that it would be nice to break up a 14 hour flight into smaller hops. Interestingly enough, we found that the combined price of tickets from Sydney to Japan, then Japan to SFO were cheaper than a direct flight from Sydney to SFO!

Next stop … Kyoto, Japan!!

Nara Park, which is located a half an hour South of Kyoto by train, is one of the oldest parks in Japan, having been established in 1880. Besides being the location of a number of impressive Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, Nara Park is home to over 1,200 wild Sika Deer. Legend says that an enshrined Deity traveled from his home on a white deer to protect the Capital of Japan, Heijokyo, which was located in Nara back in the 8th century. The deer have been considered sacred ever since, and they freely roam everywhere in the park. They are also known as ‘bowing deer’ because of how they’ve learned to bow their heads when offered the deer cookies that are sold in the park for people to feed them.

We hope you’ll enjoy a gallery of photos taken from our day at Nara Park!

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