Kyoto was the base to explore further out to see the Deers and Nara (to the south east) and the Bamboo Forest (to the north west). Kyoto has lots of shrines and attractions in its city center, but you can escape the city center for some of its natural attractions.
First up was Nara to the south east, one of Japan’s former capital and home to these little monsters.
It’s hilarious to watch them bow and eat their little crackers. Of course they don’t stop at that, if a tourist is being a little bit stingy, they go right up and poke them in the butt to let them know it.
They’ve been trained to bow in exchange for food by the locals, and some of them literally just stand in the middle of a path amongst a crowd of tourists bowing their head repeatedly until someone stops to feed them.
After the Nara deer park we took a fancy train with a little Bonsai garden in it up to the Bamboo forest. It was too crowded, but we’ve come to express this from Kyoto (even in the middle of winter).
Still some good shots despite the crowds. I try and hide people from my photography as I roam around looking for good photos, so my pictures will probably mislead you as to the true numbers of tourists roaming around.