I stopped in Nara on my way from Kyoto to Osaka, because the deer in a park there have learned that if they bow, they get food. I had no idea that the deer would be everywhere, though, nor how tame they’d actually be:

They’re definitely food motivated, but the problem was that I didn’t see any of the deer bowing. Probably because they were just straight-up being fed by everybody:

So I swallowed my pride (again), and just started bowing to any & all deer. I was the ONLY person in the park doing this. I finally figured out that the trick was to put my hand in my pocket pretending that I had food:

A bowing deer!

I kept doing this for about ten more minutes, still the only one in the park bowing, but with great results:

New video by Tim Gillons

However, I was clearly being watched by non-deer. A teen girl (who spoke perfect English), came up to me & asked why I was bowing to the deer. This is hilarious, as it meant she didn’t see any of the deer bowing to me – she just thought I was this crazy gaijin that bowed to deer. Props to her for approaching me.

Anyway, I explained it all to her, and as I was doing so, a deer came up to her, so I told her to try it out. It worked on her first try! The deer bowed, the girl squealed with delight, and I left the park feeling like a legend.