Nara

'What you are most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.'

Hello!

I got my first e-mail asking how frequently I'm going to update my blog! Hopefully I'll be able to post a travel piece once a week (usually Sundays or Mondays), if something comes up mid-week, it will most likely be either a style post or a guest blog! Which leads me onto this piece on one of my favourite places in the world: Japan!

Nara. I don't even know where to begin. For those who just Google image the place, it may seem like Bambi heaven to you. To me, it was a heaven where God decided to remind me my gym membership had long expired, and regular exercise was very much needed. So the story begins.

Right around last November, I took a much-needed (and well-deserved) break to the Kansai province of Japan. You see, due to the nature and stress of my job, I'm spoilt for choice as to whether I should acquaint the faces of certain colleagues with my lovely frying pan collection at home (all Jamie Oliver, only the best. So it's okay?), or going to holiday to relieve my stress. For now, I have opted for the less...physical, approach.

We arrived at Osaka airport in the evening and headed straight for Nara to arrive at our ryokan before midnight. My greatest Cinderella moment in life. The Japanese have very strong principles, especially when it comes to punctuality! 

We barely got a few hours sleep before the five alarm clocks started bleeping frantically. Try to picture how they were lines up trailing from my warm and comfortable futon to the cold and unwelcoming bathroom. I did what any self-respecting girl would do. I slapped on my Lancôme Génifique mask, took a nice long hot bath, and it wasn't even 4.00a.m. Such an overachiever, I know. 

I had to catch the sunrise, it has always been my favourite time of the day! By 5.00a.m., we found ourselves trekking up Tobihino hills and found the spot where all the deers were huddled up fast asleep. The sun stretched its arms half an hour later, and the deers woke up one by one.

For any avid photographers, this really is worth waking up insanely early for. Two in particular beckoned us to follow them, we did, and they led us round a corner past some overgrowth down a lane lined with stone statues into a temple.

In Japan, you go to different temples to pray for specific wishes, such as luck in love, success in exams, happiness and health, a smooth delivery et cetera. You can also buy talismans at the temple to increase the chances that your wish would come true.

After breakfast at a beautiful coffee shop next to the biggest souvenir shop in town, we made our way to the deer temple. That's when things went awry.

You will begin spotting vendors selling 'deer crackers'. 

The first message of this story is: do not by those crackers. The second message of this story is: do not buy those crackers. The third message of this story is: do NOT buy those damn crackers!!! As soon as I did, there were ten, no, twenty, no, at least thirty, deers, all shapes and sizes, edging towards me. I probably looked like the red dot on an archery board at that point.

One thing you should know is that I am miniature. Person of restricted growth. Fun-sized, to put it nicely. So all of the deers were easily my height.

I noticed their eyes were getting beadier, saliva was trickling down the sides of their mouths. Walking became a trot, and trotting soon became a sprint. And this was around eleven in the morning, with the elderly Japanese couples strolling along and tour buses arriving, there I was, in plain sight, running like a lunatic, being chased by thirty deers. Cue James Bond music. Thank God I wore flat boots that day.

As I ran, I noticed that I passed three of the same signs with the same pictures on  them.

It roughly translates into the deers will headbutt you, bite you and kick you; and if we were to play pictionary, this applies to old ladies only.

I turned around to look at whether I managed to put any distance between the herd of Bambis-gone-crazy and I. What I then saw left me gaping. Pellets of what looked like dark chocolate maltesers were raining out of their arses. It was then that I realised, these things can multitask! They were pooping, machine gun style, and chasing me for food at the same time!

Then the word 'food' registered in my mind. Shit! I was still holding onto those crackers! 

As soon as I threw them as far away from me as possible, the chasing subsided, signalling the end of my twenty minute workout.

I would also like to mention that one deer got close enough to have a taste of my juice behind, and left an 'I-was-here' mark on my left cheek in the form of teeth marks, which became a bruise later on that evening. I still had a lot of fun though!

Love,

K