We left our ryokan after an overdue sleep in and walked down to Doutor, a Japanese retail company who are a bit like Starbucks, but had some interesting breakfast food options and good coffee.
After fueling up for the morning, we caught two trains to an outer suburb of Kyoto called Arashiyama. We walked a few block until we arrived at the banks of the Katsura River and the Iwatayama Monkey Park.
The entrance featured yet another shrine. We paid our fee and climbed the path up to the top of Mt Arashiyama. It was a little muddy and we didn’t put the right shoes on for the walk, but it was well worth the effort. We were greeted by lots of Japanese macaque monkeys, including some very cute baby monkeys.
Visitors are advised to follow some rules regarding taking photos too close to the monkeys and not to stare as the older ones can become aggressive. Normally when you visit monkeys they are enclosed in a cage, but at this place the tables are turned as the monkeys roam free and we entered a hut where you can purchase food and feed the monkeys through the windows covered in safety mesh
It was lots of fun hanging out with these guys, but it was time to move on.
We made our way back down and caught a taxi to Ryoan-ji Temple, the site of Japan’s most famous rock garden. I have to say although it was nice, I was a bit underwhelmed by the experience:
The next temple was a few KM’s up the hill, so we started walking and on the side of the road we came across a narrow flight of stairs leading down to a cafe surrounded by forest. The coffee kick from breakfast had worn thin, so we stopped for an iced coffee. The view from the cafe was lovely and the coffee was good, but we didn’t realise that the tax was nearly as much as the coffee (oh well, we were on holidays).
After climbing up the mountains we arrived at Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). I missed this last time I was in Kyoto, so was glad to get the opportunity.
We left the temple and headed in the direction of where we thought we would come across a train station, but later discovered it was not to be. We found someone who spoke English and they told us to catch a bus instead, which was good advice. We made it back to Gion and after grabbing some lunch, we visited the Gion-Nishiki Market.
This place was awesome. Lots of weird and wonderful items of seafood, treats, souvenirs, meats, etc.
After sampling some of the delights, we walked back to our ryokan and got ready to go to Gion Corner, a place nearby where they put on a traditional Japanese show with tea ceremony and dancing. Unfortunately, they were renovating their theater and the show was a complete waste of time as we were crowded into a room with lots of uncomfortable chairs and unless you were in the first two rows, you couldn’t see or hear a thing! It’s a real shame because I’d been there before with Leon & Chloe and it was a magical experience.
After asking for a refund (which they gave without any fuss), we headed to a noodle bar near our ryokan for dinner, then retired for the night.
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