lost or what?

Here is JR Nara station. Today is the last day of validity for my Setouchi area pass. Fear not, tomorrow I will start using my JR West all area pass.

This is kind of the main street that runs parallel to the tourist street that goes past all the deer and shrines. Quite grey at this early hour.

There are still shrines on this street.

As I headed up the hill for a while but still on the road, the density of shrines increased.

Last time I was here I took a great photo at this spot late in the afternoon, better than today's early morning shot.

Here is the Primeval forest, the trail is like this all the way round. It does not really count as a hike I don't think. There were not too many people on it today, just joggers, maybe 5 cars went past, I think there is a toll to take a car.

There are a couple of shrines along the way, nothing grand, probably old though.

This lake and dam at the top was a lot more colourful last time too. Still not a lot of colour around, even at the top of a hill in Nara.

Over the road from the Primeveal forest national historic world heritage area, is a logging operation.

Time to head off the main road to a shrine of sorts.

First a slippery path down.

Hmm, a waterfall. As far as waterfalls go, its no Niagara.

Here is the ancient shrine in the woods. There was a cool graveyard too but that was fenced off.

At end of the Primeval loop I went up the hill to Wakakusayama Hill to appreciate the view, and the deer. Here is a deer. Later in the day I saw a guy washing blood off the ends of his fingers, hand feeding the deer is discouraged.

Here is the view. Nara is quite a large city.

There is a pay area to get up to here that makes it a short walk. I will go back down it shortly as you shall see. I decided to honour the gate at the bottom and offer to pay. CASH ONLY. I regretted being honest, now I have a wallet full of useless coins.

This guy still has his horns.

The view down the pay trail is quite nice looking. Here is a valley of flowers looking into the sun.

There are more shrines down there, lots more.

It is kind of like a ski field, but it is not.

See what I mean?

Behold, my head. It was a bit windy along this ridge.

Probably the best deer shot of the day.

Not too crowded today.

Back at the bottom. My camera really does not know what to do with anything yellow.

Now to walk back down the hill past the throngs of lazy tourists to the train.

Here are the training grounds for the deer fights. That big building in the background is the deer fighting stadium, where the most aggressive deer are pitted against each other to settle their differences. The loser is dehorned, the winner is killed and eaten.

Lots of people at lunch time.

If it does start raining, Nara has you covered, with a covered shopping street.

But they also have the uncovered variety. OK, that is enough Nara for today, my third visit to the deer fanciers paradise.