Solid-state physicist meets sacred deer. This meeting was made possible on the sidelines of a conference on neutron research within the temple area of Nara Park, Japan. But this is not the reason Tobias Cronert travelled so far: he was instead there to establish closer ties with Japanese partners. Cronert is planning to conduct experiments using the particle accelerator and neutron source of the RIKEN research institute in the near future. As part of the “High Brilliance Neutron Source” project, he wants to develop a similar source in Germany, which aims to produce highly focused neutrons. This technology allows for small neutron sources to be used in selected laboratory experiments.