As a reminder, I was in Japan to attend the 20th World Targetry and Target Chemistry Conference. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it’s a conference for people who want to irradiate solid (as opposed to liquid or gaseous) targets for the purpose of making radioactive drugs.  Which is what I do, hence the conference.  I would actually be speaking later in the week, but for the first day, I just wanted to get up early and see some sights before I had to spend the rest of the day sitting in a conference hall.

What sights were there to see, you ask?  Well, Nara is most historically significant because it was the capital of Japan for most of the 700s. The Nara period, as that era was known for the initial establishment of the idea that maybe we shouldn’t move the capital every time the emperor dies, and also deciding that this Buddhism thing is pretty cool.  There’s a number of very significant temples and shrines.

That’s why it’s HISTORICALLY important.  The main reason people come here NOW, however, is the deer.

The deer.  They are everywhere.  There will be more about them in future posts.  They are a huge tourist attraction, but it also turns out that they are also somewhat problematic – because they have no predators and are so actively fed rice crackers by tourists, their population is higher than the amount of grass in the park can sustain.  As such, they are on average somewhat undernourished.

Sure are cute, though.

This one is sitting under the Nandaimon (Great South Gate), which is guarding the path to the main temple in the park. I’ll be talking more about the temple in the later entry, but the gate itself is absolutely massive.

Also, unlike a lot of the reconstructions around Japan (looking at you, Osaka castle), this one is original, dating from the late 12th century.

One detail about the conference I will share is that all the sessions took place on a traditional Noh stage in the conference center.  Which was impressive, cool to look at, and meant that all the speakers had to remove their shoes.

While I was conferencing, Leigh was seeing the sights, but since I wasn’t there, I can’t tell you much about it. If she has time, maybe she’ll write a post.

For dinner, Leigh and I joined a number of our coworkers for a great meal at a local izakaya. At which we took zero pictures.  I remember there were things on sticks, and someone who didn’t know that you’re not supposed to chug sake.  A nice time was had by all.