Yesterday five of us made our way to Kyoto, which took a little over an hour by train. There's a lot to see and do in Kyoto, too much for just one visit, but for our first trip we opted to venture out of the downtown area and took a train northwest, where we took in the gorgeous views as we visited Iwatayama Monkey Park, the Tenryu-ji Temple, and a big, beautiful bamboo forest.
Kyoto? More like CUTE-o! The neighborhood we walked through was so charming
Our first stop was Iwatayama Monkey Park, or as we referred to it, Monkey Mountain! For 550 yen (about $5.50) we were able to enjoy a 10-15 minute hike up the trail, at the top of which was a whole bunch of monkeys, dozens and dozens of them.
The hike isn't terribly difficult but it's not exactly a walk in the park, nyuk nyuk nyuk
The scenery on our way up, just so beautiful!
About 3/4 of the way up, we spotted our first monkey!
The first monkey was quickly followed by a second, and they were very playful with each other
Almost all the way up, and monkeys were basically everywhere
For 100 yen we bought little bags of apples or peanuts, and we were allowed to feed the monkeys right out of our hands, but only through a screen inside the little hut
The momma monkey would literally take the food out of her baby's hand and eat it
Not only was the close-up view of the monkeys amazing, but the view of Kyoto below was breathtaking
The monkeys would walk right past us, getting as close as a foot or two away.
They generally ignored us unless we were feeding them from inside the hut.
We were warned not to touch them or make prolonged eye contact with them.
Just hanging out with my monkey buddies
We got to witness feeding time, during which they played The Can-can and this guy walked around throwing seeds all over the ground. The monkeys went bananas.
This dude must have been the alpha monkey, he was very protective of his big stash of seeds on this stump
Monkey Mountain was one of the most unique and memorable places I've ever been. It was super bizarre and a ton of fun! We stayed at the top for not quite half an hour before making our way back down the trail. Just outside of the park entrance was a river and a couple places to rent boats. In a spur-of-the-moment decision we decided to get one for 35 minutes, which cost 6800 yen (split between five people, not too bad given the fact that we sat back and enjoyed the view while a man used a bamboo stick to take us down the river).
We happened to float by a Japanese TV show being filmed!
Looked like a death scene or something
Halfway through the trip, a boat with snacks and drinks floated up to us!
A clever little business they've got going
The food ended up being...not our favorite. These rice dumplings looked good but were mushy and gooey in a really unappetizing way, not much flavor on the inside.
After our trip up and down the river, we made our way to Tenryu-ji temple nearby. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the actual temple, but it was really beautiful, and there were plenty of interesting things to see surrounding it as well.
We made our way to a street with lots of shops and restaurants for a late lunch, which was, of course, delicious!
Shrimp and soy cream pasta with a salad and some sort of mashed squash
Strawberry tart with fresh whipped cream for dessert
We then headed just north of the main street and into the bamboo forest, which was super cool! Pictures don't quite do it justice, but I did my best.
It was a fun-filled day but involved a lot of walking so we were all pretty wiped and ready to head home by 4:30-ish.
Saw this gem on the last of our trains home
Later that night outside of Kaigandori House, there was some sort of candle festival going on! Just snapped a couple quick pics on my way out
The past couple of days have been jam-packed with fun and travel, so today I'm taking it easy and probably not leaving our little island (which is called Tempozan, and not Minato-ku as I incorrectly said a few posts ago. Minato-ku is the large area of Osaka that Tempozan is a part of). Might head to a nearby Ikea to spruce up my apartment a bit, so if I make it look nicer I'll take some new pics of my place. One last day off today (three in a row-- amazing!) before I'm back in to work tomorrow. Thanks for reading y'all, and again, post any questions you might have in the comments, arigato gozaimasu!
Bamboooo...
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