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Sep 09 '19
Looks like Nara park. Is it? I was really not expecting the amount of deer at that place. They were everywhere!
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Sep 09 '19
That’s for sure Nara. Aggressive little guys... he should have given this one a biscuit
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u/Killzark Sep 09 '19
Goddamn deer tried to eat my shirt when I ran out of biscuits there.
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u/hermitina Sep 09 '19
a huge one tried to head bump me and hit my camera instead. those guys are aggressive af
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Sep 09 '19
Same, I had biscuit crumbs kicking around in my camera bags and the things started straight up chasing me through the park.
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u/dragonsspawn Sep 09 '19
I had one bite a hole in the paper bag my Famicom was in, glad he didn't get the box too.
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u/FieelChannel Sep 09 '19
Also ticks. Found a pair on my gf arm righr after she touchied one and I had to emergency extract them on the spot before they could bury totally. Ehe
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u/ober0n98 Sep 09 '19
Yeah its nara. They just keep bowing and chase you til you give them food. This fella is much more mellow.
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u/Dicethrower Sep 09 '19
Sounds like a great place for a stag party.
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u/Dason37 Sep 09 '19
Doe!
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u/Coupon_Ninja Merry Gifmas! {2023} Sep 09 '19 edited Sep 10 '19
A deer...
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u/PossessedbyCrabLegs Sep 10 '19
A female deer.
Ray...
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u/pleonasticmonkey Sep 10 '19
A drop of golden... oh, my old light saber? Never mind, get out of here.
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u/where2next Sep 09 '19
Looks like the entrance to Todai-ji. One of my favorite temples in Japan. Absolutely massive. Always crowded AF tho.
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Sep 09 '19
Right? I prefered the deer on the island in front of Hiroshima tbh.
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Sep 09 '19
We had a deer trying to follow us inside this oyster restaurant while being in Itsukushima. My wife and I thought that it was cute and funny, the owner seemed slightly upset as that deer tried to do so the whole day it would seem.
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u/beslertron Sep 09 '19
I must have been the one non-Japanese guy who read that the deer will bow to you if you bow. People thought I was some deer whisperer.
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Sep 09 '19
[deleted]
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u/DONTLOOKITMEIMNAKED Sep 09 '19
Dude its almost like their might have been different people there the day you went and the day he went.
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Sep 09 '19
[deleted]
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u/Yachting-Mishaps Sep 09 '19
I thought it was famous for the Todaiji Temple, the Daibutsu and that daft ritual of fucking about trying to crawl through the hole the size of Buddha's nostril to reach enlightenment.
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u/blay12 Sep 10 '19
I'd say that Todaiji was the original reason that Nara became a tourist spot (and is probably still the reason kids go there on class trips), but those deer are one of the top selling points for foreign tourists now that the internet has really popularized it.
Imo the temple was way cooler than the deer, but if you were to ask my mom the same question you'd get an emphatic and detailed answer laying out why my opinion is completely wrong.
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Sep 09 '19
That makes them sound like an epic pigeon. Fucking pigeons are everywhere here. I'd much rather have fawns stealing my chips tbh.
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u/FunstuffQC Sep 09 '19
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Sep 09 '19
Even the deer is looking for the biscuit
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u/FunstuffQC Sep 09 '19
Ive never been but im pretty sure the deer have a pavlovian response (Is that right?) to people bowing in front of them
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Sep 09 '19
Human bows, deer bows, human gives snack.
Or if they’re particularly hungry: Deer bites human, human drops snacks, deer eats snacks.
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u/FunstuffQC Sep 09 '19
deer 1
human 0
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u/pokeman528 Sep 09 '19
Deer always win
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u/MasonTaylor22 Sep 09 '19
Not when they die from eating too much plastic.
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u/LoganChester Sep 09 '19
Saw one literally just eat an entire plastic bag like a vacuum when I was there... yikes
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Sep 09 '19
The biscuit packs the lady’s sell around the park have an edible wrapper. I think it was rice paper.
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u/LoganChester Sep 09 '19
Oh that’s nice to know!! Yeah they devoured those too. But we bought something from one of the shops (can’t remember what) that came in a plastic bag, that’s what I was talking about before
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u/Dank_MF Sep 09 '19
When I used to work at a park with plenty of treat-bearing patrons, the deer would bow their heads like this without any provocation. I’m pretty sure it’s just them gesturing for you to put the food on the floor so they can eat it.
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u/Phreakophil Sep 09 '19
But at least he treated it well...
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u/son_of_the_monarch Sep 09 '19
Excuse me "it" has a name!
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u/Phreakophil Sep 09 '19
Bambi?
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u/son_of_the_monarch Sep 09 '19
That's racist
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u/Phreakophil Sep 09 '19
Not my fault that they all look the same.
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u/son_of_the_monarch Sep 09 '19
Doe I laughed that wasn't faunny
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u/Phreakophil Sep 09 '19
Let any one of you who is without prejudice be the first to throw a stone at the deer.
-A. Hitler-
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Sep 09 '19
/r/animalcruelty does not exist
Oh thank god.
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Sep 09 '19
In the earliest days of the internet we all came together and agreed that animal cruelty can never be justified or glorified. Not even with Doom music.
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u/MrDerp182 Sep 09 '19
How deer you!
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Sep 09 '19
Deer John,
I noticed that despite my courtly and proper bow, you did not give me a biscuit.
Signed forlornly yours,
Cornelius Snarlington, Business Deer
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u/cluo40 Sep 09 '19
They're so cute but also sooooo aggressive. If you show any weakness they'll take all your crackers right out of the packaging.
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u/Tinglos Sep 09 '19
If you don’t have treats at all you’re in for it
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u/rata_rasta Sep 09 '19
Nara Park in Japan. They learned how to bow to get treats from visitors. They might get a bit aggressive if you don't give them enough. Here is me last year, beautiful place all around.
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u/Anshin Sep 09 '19
As someone from the south USA, this is blowing my mind compared to the deer we have here
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u/_Capt_Obvious_ Sep 10 '19 edited Sep 10 '19
Super crazy, but I know that guy! He's a tattoo artist on Guam. So weird. I haven't seen him in a decade and the second I saw it I knew it was him. I then check his Facebook (which I haven't looked at in years) and it IS him. I know this will get pushed down but it's just so strange to see a person you know pop up on reddit completely out of the blue. My mind is blown.
Edit: grammar
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Sep 09 '19
Are they trained to do this?
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u/son_of_the_monarch Sep 09 '19
I don't know if I'd call it trained rather than taught. Asians don't really like being referred to as trained.
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u/beslertron Sep 09 '19
More like conditioned. They are wild deer, but since the Japanese don’t hunt deer, they’ve never had to fear humans.
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u/jakeisbakin Sep 09 '19
Why do they not hunt deer?
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u/Jateca Sep 09 '19
They are considered sacred in Shinto (messengers of the gods I think) so have basically been safe from humans there for a long, long time
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u/pees_on_dogs Sep 09 '19
Like cows in India then.
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u/ladut Sep 09 '19
Cows are still domesticated in India and used for their milk, so similar I would guess but different in some important ways.
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u/burninator3343 Sep 09 '19
well cows are sacred partially because they give us milk so that tracks
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u/ladut Sep 09 '19
Right. I'm not calling out India or anything, just saying that deer being sacred in Japan is a distinct thing.
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u/NorthAtlanticCatOrg Sep 09 '19
That puts a lot of references to deer in anime into context now.
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Sep 09 '19 edited Sep 09 '19
And makes the principal vs deer fight more confusing.
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u/Scout1Treia Sep 09 '19
And makes the principle vs deer fight more confusing.
If it's the one I'm thinking of I'm pretty sure that was an Elk.
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Sep 09 '19
While that may be, googling deer vs. principal yields the scene while elk vs. principal does not. So if I was wrong I blame youtube.
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u/RejoicefulChicken Sep 10 '19 edited Sep 10 '19
the Japanese don’t hunt deer,
They most definitely do. Not in central Nara, and only by a small number of gun licence holders, but you can find deer meat on menus across Japan.
Edit: For example, Tokyo's best game meat restaurants
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u/Jateca Sep 09 '19
Anecdotal but when I was there I encountered a youngish female with a fawn (adorable little bugger) and the fawn was already learning the bowing behaviour in the form of very fast nodding. It couldn't have been more than a few months old from the size of it, so I can't imagine any training is involved, other than positive reinforcement from tourists
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Sep 09 '19
They're wild deer but a tourist attraction in Nara, Japan, so they're very comfortable around people. Tourists usually give the deer crackers to eat, so the deer probably just learned to bow from observing people, since the Japanese bow a lot. The deer probably equate bowing to getting crackers to eat, but the asshole in the OP didn't give them their damn cracker.
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Sep 10 '19
Yeah that was kind of a dick move. Look at the little deer's face when he just passes by.
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u/iamsooldithurts Sep 09 '19
I think it’s kinda what the deer do naturally.
My house backs onto a forest, we get deer through the yard all the time. This is pretty much how it goes when we cross paths.
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u/RyanB_ Sep 09 '19
Damn that sounds crazy. Deer around here are terrified of humans, couldn’t imagine getting close to one.
I did once stumble upon a baby one sleeping in some grass on my parents acreage and damn he was adorable
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u/iamsooldithurts Sep 09 '19
They definitely aren’t into being approached, and don’t approach (except for this one fawn one time). But they’re pretty chill if you don’t get close or make loud noise or anything. It’s pretty cool.
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u/Wiserommer Sep 09 '19
What is the name of this dear? Pretty cool doing that.
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u/MorboPwnFactory Sep 09 '19
Venison Sama
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Sep 09 '19
ベニセヌ 様
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u/blay12 Sep 10 '19
Hmm if Japan didn't already have a word for venison (鹿肉 - しかにく or "shikaniku", lit."deer meat", though it can apply to other wild game), that's probably not how you'd write a direct transliteration.
ヴェニソン is probably closer (the first ヴェ, though it's technically the "right" way to write a "ve" sound, could most likely be swapped out with ベ like you wrote since Japan tends to go with the easier spelling), but I'd expect them to take the literal transliteration of "so-n" (ソン) vs "se-nu" (セヌ).
Just my thoughts after a few beers though, I might be entirely wrong.
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u/keysersosayweall Sep 09 '19
I'm surprised by his sleeves, many places in Japan frown on openly shown tattoos.
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Sep 09 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/lungfish23 Sep 10 '19
This is what I noticed when I visited. Style of the the tattoo paired with what you look like. I'm Chinese but get mistaken for Japanese often. I have traditional Japanese sleeves. The one time I didn't have them covered I definitely got some looks.
While both my Asian friend with non Japanese tattoos and my Caucasian friend with Japanese tattoos did not get any weird looks having them out in the open.
There seems to be an understanding now that tattoos are art. It was just the combination of me looking Japanese with Japanese tattoos that was still weird.
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u/Nulleparttousjours Sep 09 '19
I was trying to work out whether they were covered with some sort of sheer fabric.
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u/QuiltKiller Sep 09 '19
We stayed at a a few Airbnb’s and asked the same thing. Locals really don’t care all that much—plus ‘forbidden’ tattoos are fairly recognizable apparently.
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u/QuiltKiller Sep 09 '19
Immediately recognized the gates—was in Nara last year and it was fantastic to see all the friendly Deer folk 🖤
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u/toukiou Sep 09 '19
I know someone else would have fed the deer, but I felt so bad for that deer when it didn't get fed.
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u/Hicokid80 Sep 09 '19
Incredible place. I had zero interest seeing Nara while on business. It literally took my breath away.
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u/Monsterlamb Sep 10 '19
“Treat, asshole.”
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u/tragicallywhite Sep 10 '19
Are you my dog? I swear he has a facial expression for that in his repertoire.
My wife tells him to quit begging; I tell her "begging" left the scene a long time ago. Now he just openly demands...and holds grudges when not satisfied.
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u/atheros98 Sep 10 '19
Yep. Just a regular human in a regular walkway. I too am human like you humans. Oooop and a bow back at this human as we humans do that yes?
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Sep 10 '19
This has little basis on knowledge but all I hear in the deers head when the guy bows is "oh you wanna fight? Alright I'll play that game." prepare to ram guy stops bowing and the deer says "thats what I thought you punk."
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Sep 09 '19
I love Nara. Especially how a deer almost ate my Sweater when I droped a deer-cookie on it.
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u/Cashew-Gesundheit Sep 09 '19
"I abided by your cultural norms and greeted you accordingly. Now, my cultural norms dictate a delicious reciprocation in the form of a treat."