We then headed west to Arashiyama. It was sunny out but the breeze made it just right. Arashiyama is a small touristy town on the edge of the city. Our main reason for going was to see iwatayama, monkey park. After a 20 min hike up a fairly steep path we made it to the top of the park situated on the top of a hill over looking Kyoto. There were Japanese snow monkeys everywhere! It was great. We wandered around the area at the top and saw many monkeys running around or jumping in trees or grooming each other. We even saw baby monkies!
Some monkeys are polite and gentle while others are crabby and mean! Eliza and I avoided the mean ones and tried to sneak the polite monkeys food as much as we could. It was a lot of fun and well with the 200 yen! Still probably one of the trip highlights.
After we had spent an hour or so at the top, we headed back down to see a bamboo forest with a small prayer shrine at the end. The forest was neat and afforded some nice picture opportunities.
It was getting late so we took a train to east Kyoto. Oh my goodness the train ended up being one of those trains you see on YouTube where they are trying to jam rverylast person onto an already full train. It was ridiculous! Elders and students were all mashed together. Quite the experience and I thought it was kinda fun, but probably because I'm taller than most people and my face wasn't squished against someone elses back.
after the train commute we arrived at the temple too late as the sun was going down and it was closed. So we walked around the nearby Gion district after eating some really nice Japanese crab katsu curry. The Gion district was really neat. All old wooden buildings with red lanterns hung out front. It really felt like olden times japan.
After Gion we headed back to the hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment