Deer Christmas

Happy Christmas, everyone. It's been the 25th for over eleven hours here in Japan. Christmas is plenty popular at the department stores, less so at the temples. But I went to Nara Park, which has a cluster of temples, anyway because it's crawling with friendly, wild deer.

Because of this, deer are the mascots of Nara prefecture so it's always kind of incidentally Christmasy here, at least to Western eyes.

Also, sometimes there are Christmas trees in the official buildings. The boy with the antlers is Sento-kun, Nara's mascot.

Other wildlife was scarce on my recent trip but I did see two herons.

The deer are very hungry. They're used to people giving them special deer cookies you can buy throughout the park but crowds have been scarce due to Covid. Fortunately, there are acorns for deer who aren't too lazy to forage for them:

Here's a deer coming down the steps of the Great South Gate of Todai-ji Temple:

Here's the gate:

There are two massive wooden statues from the 13th century under the gates:

They looked nice and sinister in the sunset:

May Heaven's guardian warriors keep your Christmas safe.

Twitter Sonnet #1505

The dotted egg completes the grammar tank.
To sleep in softer shells we cooked the bird.
We kept the feathers hidden near the bank.
We know a flaying paper breathed a word.
In icy walls the strings of light awoke.
The timing chimed with turning glass and dust.
A ragged tyre gripped a broken spoke.
The forest changed in sudden bursts of rust.
The same movie's changed its bands of hue.
Where hopeless steps were looped around the arm.
The campers left some wrappers plus a clue.
The hidden monkey's sandwich was on a farm.
The red and green were cookie colour sweet.
The pulsing lights became electric beat.