# @veenacrownholm on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DGT41lATcHN
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/27831882-veenacrownholm-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/ebe7019ac5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-02-20T22:13:40.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Veena Goel Crownholm (@veenacrownholm) — https://gondola.cc/veenacrownholm

## Caption

🦌 Come Spend the Day With Us at Nara Deer Park in Japan 🇯🇵 

I have been wanting to visit Nara Deer Park for years and years. I had read about it in a magazine and added it to my Japan travel list so when we found ourselves in Osaka…we knew this was the perfect way to spend the day 🦌

Upon entering the park we bought Shika Senbei or Deer Crackers (made of rice bran and wheat flour - safe for deer to eat) for 200 yen 💴 per packet and we bought a bunch. The deer flock to you and it’s so fun to feed and interact. The Sika deer are known as bowing deer and will bow for crackers and bow when you bow. It’s really special and fun. Also a magical that it was sprinkling snow ❄️ too! 

And yes they can get pushy about their biscuits even when you done have any…watch video for my encounters 🤣🤣🤣 but also for real do be careful to be too low as some may head butt. 

The Japanese people have been protecting the deer in this area for more than 1,000 years as messengers of Takemikazuchi, the main deity of Kasuga Grand Shrine, and that this has allowed the deer in this area to maintain their population from generation to generation.

The legend goes that the thunder god, Takemikazuchi, appeared in Nara riding on a white deer. The deer carried a scroll in its mouth, and Takemikazuchi warned the awestruck mortals who beheld him that from that point on, the deer would report their actions to the gods. The humans took note, built shrines, and granted the deer protection. Killing one of these sacred Nara deer was punishable by death, and so for hundreds of years, the animals roamed freely.

Nara was so special and we had so much fun exploring the Kasuga Taisha shrine and watching traditional Mochi making in town. That was awesome and the mochi was chef’s kiss the best I have ever had not to mention so fresh as it’s made in front of you. Video coming! Off to Kyoto! 

#nara #naradeer #naradeerpark #osakajapan #visitjapan #familytravel #familyadventures

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## Tags

visitjapan, osakajapan, naradeerpark, familyadventures, familytravel, naradeer, nara

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