I went to Nara as planned by my fellow employees. To my great surprise, which is still weird for me, is that Nara is apparently a big tourist destination. I've heard of Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kobe, Tokyo, etc. I've never heard of Nara. I went to Hiroshima, Kyoto and many other places already and I never saw as many tourists as I did yesterday. It was strange. Everywhere I went I clearly saw tourists, but they were mostly Japanese. I especially never saw westerners. I didn't really feel like a visitor in Japan until now.
Now to the philosophical review of the day:
I love nature. I have gone camping every year at least once since I was 6. Yes, I am a hunter, at least a certified one. Different issue. I take offense to the Japanese tradition of promoting the congregation of small deer around shrines and temples. I have pictures of me next to some at a temple near Hiroshima. I don't have anything against the deer. It's not like they are harmful or something. I just don't like the idea. In America, we are always told: Don't feed the animals. There are VERY good reasons for this. In Japan, there are venders that sell food FOR THE ANIMALS. And they are feeding deer. with antlers.
My biggest gripe is that the animals are being domesticated, and yet not looked after. If you own a dog, you take care of it: feed it, house it, bath it, clean up after it, etc. No matter what 'pet' you have, you take responsibility for it. Not here. The deer are living in filth; hell, I was walking in it. They eat anything that gets put near their mouth and do not look healthy at all.
Side note: Japanese people are very non-confontmental. Example: We were eating a picnic lunch at a table and deer came up to the table. It was like a dog pushing it's nose into everything. The people with me were petting it and just grabbing their things away to then replace them and have them rummaged through once again. I, on the other hand, clearly showed the deer I did not like its presence.
I decided to try and explain my disturbance of the practice to my fellow employees. I don't think they understood. I'm not sure you really can if you've never seen anything, but the present. We ended the day at a Bali restaurant. I had a beer. First one in 2 weeks. DELICIOUS.
Now to the philosophical review of the day:
I love nature. I have gone camping every year at least once since I was 6. Yes, I am a hunter, at least a certified one. Different issue. I take offense to the Japanese tradition of promoting the congregation of small deer around shrines and temples. I have pictures of me next to some at a temple near Hiroshima. I don't have anything against the deer. It's not like they are harmful or something. I just don't like the idea. In America, we are always told: Don't feed the animals. There are VERY good reasons for this. In Japan, there are venders that sell food FOR THE ANIMALS. And they are feeding deer. with antlers.
My biggest gripe is that the animals are being domesticated, and yet not looked after. If you own a dog, you take care of it: feed it, house it, bath it, clean up after it, etc. No matter what 'pet' you have, you take responsibility for it. Not here. The deer are living in filth; hell, I was walking in it. They eat anything that gets put near their mouth and do not look healthy at all.
Side note: Japanese people are very non-confontmental. Example: We were eating a picnic lunch at a table and deer came up to the table. It was like a dog pushing it's nose into everything. The people with me were petting it and just grabbing their things away to then replace them and have them rummaged through once again. I, on the other hand, clearly showed the deer I did not like its presence.
I decided to try and explain my disturbance of the practice to my fellow employees. I don't think they understood. I'm not sure you really can if you've never seen anything, but the present. We ended the day at a Bali restaurant. I had a beer. First one in 2 weeks. DELICIOUS.
posted by Bruhaha at 7:19 AM
4 Comments:
70% of Japanese tourism is domestic, I hear.
you mean confrontational
the beer here sucks
here too...unless you like cristal or escuda...which I do not.
i did mean confrontational; i never said the beer itself was good; all japanese beer is very light and yet still grainy tasting. I was just saying i missed beer, so any beer tasted good at that moment
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