Japanese deer, The Shika

The closest I will get to a deer in Japan.

There is bit of a story behind this shot. It reminds me of a situation I had back in Nova Scotia with my Korean friends. In 1997, the Korean host family I stayed with visited my family in Canada. Outside, my father had left a set of deer antlers lying on the ground. The Koreans were immediately surprised and shocked that we had them just lying around. Koreans, like the Chinese will use deer antler for traditional medicines. My friend was trying to figure out how we could take them back to Korea. His wife asked me what we were going to do with them, to which I replied that he would make them into buttons, knife handles or other tools.

When we got back to Korea and my friends were talking to the other staff, they were aghast that we'd have something so valuable lying on the ground.

This deer in Japan had his antlers sawn off to prevent him from ramming kids.