once we had tesni in tow, our group was coming together nicely. the four of us woke up fairly early and took the JR to nara. tesni had been to the deer park there before, and gave it an incredible recommendation -- so we had to do it. i mean, feeding deer in the open? yes, please!

we walked up to the area where the deer were and saw tons of little guys (and girls!) just milling around. at first we were all kind of creeped out because the "festival" where they cut off the antlers had just happened, so a lot of them had wax tips on the nubs where their antlers had once been... some of them had rubbed the wax off though, and it was just like an open bloody stub. barf! so i'm like, ok lets get these deer some cookies. we hit up a cookie stand and the deer were going bonkers. they obviously know what to do, act real innocent until they see you are going to buy them some treats and then they get excited! tesni was freaked because the deer were just going for her, so she dropped the cookies and ran. nicole was doing a good job until the deer decided the cookies weren't enough and went after her jacket! haha... priceless. i kept my cookies long enough to get comfortable with the deer and it worked out well because i didn't flip out. i just fed each deer, and it was kind of nice, but they get really aggressive quickly!

after walking a bit more, and we came upon a really nice traditional pagoda. perfect pit stop for a jumping picture! adam agreed to take the picture while us girls jumped... i accidentally got a little too close to nicole, and a bit too extreme with my jump ended up kicking her in the shin which caused her to fall on the ground. its funny now, and it was even funny at the time. nicole can attest! i didn't mean it and i am still sorry nicole, but that was funny. whew!


jeremy had planned on meeting us in nara, so once we got the call saying he had arrived at the nara train station, we decided to chill at the temple gates to wait for him. once he showed up, we were now five strong and ready to see the todai-ji temple! it is apparently the biggest wooden building in the world? and another unesco world heritage site! i keep checking them off my list on this trip to japan. it houses the "great big buddha" which is this colossal bronze statue, definitely incredible. flanked by temple warriors, there was a lot to look at and several information points with "simply stated" (lol jeremy) historical facts.



there is also this wooden column with a cut out where you are supposed to try and slide through... if you can make it, it means you will have a long life or a wonderful life or something. well, its not fair because only children and small women can fit through it! actually, i could have probably fit, but i wasn't about to get stuck. even the thought of getting stuck in some wooden contraption in the middle of japan makes me shiver now... but tesni and nicole tried it, and succeeded! nicole required a little bit of jeremy's help because we were all laughing so hard, but i got some quality pictures. good times at todai-ji!