Nara is a fascinating city, with lots of history & beautiful buildings to explore and learn about.

But I thought I’d go with a few pictures of the city’s most famous residents for this weekend retrospective.

Kasuga shrine, tucked away in a forest at one end of Nara, is home to Takemikazuchi no mikoto, a deer riding deity who showed up to Nara on a white deer way back when.

Ever since this auspicious day, the deer have been revered, respected and readily handed crackers by tourists.

I knew the deer were everywhere but I was still surprised by just how many of them there are. I was also equally amused by the habits they’ve developed by co-existing so peacefully with humans over the centuries.

They cross the road – and most of the time, they do so at pedestrian crossings.

They’ll come up to you and bow – which might be for food, or it might be because people have respectfully bowed to them since the 7th century and they’ve just learned this behaviour.

They also follow people around – the best part of this little habit of theirs is that they tend to go after anyone moving quickly; meaning that when a tourist finds the crowds of deer too much to handle and decides to take off… well, they’re only making things worse for themselves.