Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Kyoto - Arashiyama

We're off on our next adventure, to finally see Kyoto.  It's my first time on the shinkansan (bullet train)!  I'm surprised there are no meals or bento boxes available (like we've had on other trains).  Just snacks and drinks, but it could be because we're traveling in the late afternoon.  It's a pleasant 2 1/2 hour trip, with nice scenery along the way.  Here's Mt. Fuji with some rice fields in the foreground. 

Mt. Fuji & rice paddies
















The next morning we're up early to explore Arashiyama, a district in western Kyoto.

Pretty!

Just hanging around
Our first stop is the Arashiyama Monkey Park and I want to be there when it opens to beat the crowds.  We're successful - there's only one person there with us when we visit with the monkeys!  After the twenty minute climb (uphill the whole way, one set of stairs at the beginning) we reach a plateau with a building, a view, and monkeys!  They are free to roam around and not kept in an enclosed area.  In fact, it's the humans that are caged!  You cannot pet the monkeys, and you are warned not to get closer than six feet, don't stare into their eyes, nor crouch down.  You can feed them though - that's when you go in the cage!  



Monkey selfie!
Inside the building you can purchase food (apples or something else...I forget what it was - peanuts, maybe).  We choose apples because I think it's a more appropriate breakfast food.  They are very polite with us, reaching in to delicately take the fruit off our palms.  There's a little bit of monkey screeching outside as other monkeys are told to stay back, but since there's wire on all four sides it's easy for them to find a new spot to hang to get food.  We're very good about distributing the apples equally among the monkeys.





















After we finish with the food, we go back outside and see a mother monkey with her baby.  It's hard to remember not to crouch down - they are so cute!  Especially when the baby monkey tries to walk a few steps and just rolls over.  Mom makes sure he isn't hurt.




















You also have a nice view of Kyoto from here.  You should, after the climb!



Did you observe that the sign is in English, not Japanese?






On our way back down the mountain, I have to chuckle at the single warning sign along our path.  There's a fifty foot drop running along the walkway for most of the trip up to the monkeys. This is all the notice you get.  Obviously the "assumption of risk" is at a different level in Japan versus the US!  As we near the entrance/exit we also pass the first busloads of people heading up the hill.  I knew I was right to get there early!


I think his eyes are following me wherever I go!
Once we're down the mountain, it's only a twenty minute walk across the Togetsukyo Bridge and to the Tenryu-ji Temple.  There are over 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto, so it was nice to have someone recommend it to us, otherwise we might have missed it.  There's a gorgeous Japanese garden, zen rock gardens, and different buildings scattered around.  We're able to tour the Hojo (Abbot's Quarters), which is in the style of traditional Japanese architecture.  There are tatami mat floors and lots of sliding shoji doors (bamboo frames with panes of washi paper).  A few fusuma doors give a little more privacy to the sleeping areas.  The cloud dragon painting on these doors looks really cool.


I love the way these shoji doors frame the garden.
Tatami mats, check.  Shoji doors, check.  House is finished.

I saw someone else taking this photo and "copied" it.
After the building we wander around the garden.  We're lucky to have perfect spring weather - the kind where you're just glad to be alive and outdoors.  Typical with Japanese gardens, every direction is beautiful and there are all sorts of picturesque little nooks.  Steve determines he's going to transform our backyard into a Japanese garden when we return to the US. 

Yes, the little stream made a tinkling sound, because this is a Japanese garden, and it is perfect. 


Steve can feel the zen sinking into him.

As we walk around the different garden sections, one area has the plants and flowers labeled - in English!  I'm excited to identify mountain laurel.  I've never seen it before (that I know of) but it's been mentioned as scenery in books.  Now I can picture it!







 



Heading out towards the north exit, we drift into the Sagano bamboo forest.  This is not the bamboo in your backyard - they must grow 50 feet high and it feels like they go on forever when you stand among them. (You're on a path - you can't actually go walk through them.  Probably too many lost tourists!)


Being lost here must be worse than being lost in a cornfield!
























After leaving the temple and walking the rest of the way through the bamboo forest (about 1/4 mile), it only takes a couple of minutes to reach Okochi Sanso Villa.  This had been the home of Japan's most famous silent actor, Okochi Denjiro, until he died in 1962.  He spent over 30 years working on it, and it paid off because it's gorgeous.

the entrance to the gardens

a little moss garden
Steve might have a lot of work in front of him if he wants to do this at our house.

Not only are the gardens unbelievably beautiful, but we're treated to more wonderful views of Kyoto.  I try to be creative and use the maple leaves to frame the city.

I think I see our hotel!

The mountains make a nice picture, too. Can you see the temple on the bluff?

Can you?  Can you?

Included with our 1000 yen (about $10) admission fee to the villa is a cup of green tea and a Japanese sweet.  Steve declares it's the best green tea he's had since he arrived in Japan.


It's only lunchtime!  Still lots to see and do around Kyoto!

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