Happiness and Sadness in Nara

Time to use the Japan Rail Pass again. The trip from JR Kyoto to JR Nara station took almost an hour. I felt the fatigue creeping in my me that day so I played snoozefest with my alarm that morning. It was around 10am when I landed in JR Nara station.

Train heading to Nara

An officemate went to Nara the previous year and I was enchanted with the roaming wild deer in Nara Park. It would be fun to meet a Bambi in person.

Bambi

Nara Park is a 25-minute walk from JR Nara Station – says the tourist information person. You can also take public transportation going there but why rush? Walking is always part of the adventure.

I made a stop in CoCo Curry House for some filling mid-morning “snack”.

Passed bu Kōfuku-ji Temple. A bunch of Japanese schoolboys offered to take my picture. I forgot to change the settings back to "Vivid colors" mode. 

I was giddy with excitement to see a deer.Weeeeee! <3 font="">

One approached me cautiously. 

Anyone knows what happened to the...horn?

The purple camera case, and the deer...

A grandpa finally took pity on me when he saw me doing desperate selfie-shots-with-the-deer. He volunteered to take my pic. 

Are they snobbing you? Don't take it personally

They are careful when crossing the road. They use the pedestrian lane. Now how's that for a Japanese deer?

Crossing with the pedestrians

I passed by a Nara Treasures Exhibit. The line was supeeeeeer long and I wanted more time to see deer. Deer. Deer. Deer. Deer. 

There are signs everywhere to remind everyone that the deer of Nara Park are wild animals. They are not pets, they are not tamed, be careful.



They are everywhere. They rule.

Tambay lang sa daan,

Just chillin'.

Be careful of stepping on any deer droppings/ deer poop .

Like humans, they will gladly give you attention if you offer free food – deer biscuits are sold in the area. Parang free taste lang sa mall. You can feed the delightful creatures for JPY 150.

Now I'll hall have your attention

And those deer will start hounding you. Following you. Begging for more.

Too much deer attention.

Lucky me again. Some Japanese group took pity on a solo traveller like me and offered to take my picture.

Hey guys, look at the camera. Smile!

Autumn is here.


I roamed around and chased (and chased away) more deer. I placed my camera in whatever place it can stand.

I placed the camera at bench,I set the timer, took my position, and posed with the deer. Success! Just before I reached the bench, a deer bumped my camers.

MAJOR OOPS.

IT DIED.

The last picture my Canon 95 took before dying

I stomped back to Nara Train Station in low spirits. I was still holding my damaged camera, pressing the on/off button, hoping that it would miraculously pop to life. Nadah. I went to McDonald’s and stuffed myself with fries. French fries as a band-aid to my frustration.

On the "relatively" brighter side, it was Day 8/10 of my Japan adventure. So that’s only 2 days of camera-less vacation. I’ll have to settle for the poor quality pics of my Nokia N8. Booohooohoo.

I was able to get my Canon S95 repaired in Canon SM North Edsa Annex. I paid for Php 250.00, a check-up fee, and waited for a text message that estimated the cost of repairs. After two weeks, I got a text message that informed me it will cost me a whopping Php 8,000 to repair it – I got it in the gray market for Php 16,000+. A new Canon S100 costs Php 14,000 in the gray market back then. I didn’t really want a new one, so I sucked up and paid the costly Php 8,000 repair fee. Got my repaired camera back after three more weeks. Still working perfectly.