Back to a Historical City (9/4/10 & 9/5/10)

In an attempt to see the sights we missed in Kyoto, we went back twice (in two different groups) and saw a couple of new things. On Saturday we visited Ginkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion", and on Sunday we visited the Iwatayama Monkey Park and the Arashiyama bamboo forest.

September 4th, 2010: As with most of our weekend trips this trip was planned at the last minute, so we travelled to Kyoto without any real itinerary (other than wanting to see Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji). Unfortunately, we only made it to Ginkaku-ji, but we had a nice time walking around the garden area and taking lots of pictures. Both Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji closed at 5:00PM; we were at Ginkaku-ji at around 4:30PM and would not have been able to travel to Kinkaku-ji before it closed.

* * *

September 5th, 2010: Learning from our previous error of leaving in the afternoon, some of us left a few hours earlier (closer to 12:00PM) and headed to Arashiyama, with the bamboo forest as our destination. On the train ride there we noticed that the Iwatayama Monkey Park was close to the station and on our way to the bamboo forest. We ended up taking the wrong path up the mountain, however, which was in actuality a hiking trail that didn't lead to the park. We spent a chunk of time hiking part way up and then back down after we noticed our phone's GPS straying from the Monkey Park, but after walking a short distance from the entrance of the trail we found the entrance to the Monkey Park.

The Monkey Park, also known as "Monkey Mountain", houses around 150 monkeys that are all named and all have their birthdate recorded. The park has certain rules, such as "Don't stare at the monkeys in the eye" and "Don't touch the monkeys", but you are able to feed them with snacks bought at the top of the mountain. The monkeys are used to human visitors so they frequently walk close to visitors and usually stay still for pictures. One baby monkey actually walked to me and started playing with my shoelaces, but I snuck away when it wasn't looking so that I wouldn't upset its parents. The view of Kyoto from the top of the mountain is also really nice, and there are a few sets of build-in binoculars for viewing the many buildings down below.

After leaving the Monkey Park we crossed the Togetsukyō bridge and walked only a short distance to get to the bamboo forest. The tall stalks of bamboo were quite intimidating but are a really interesting sight to see. They sway in the wind and drop leaves like confetti, and even block out some of the sunlight as you get deeper into the forest. The trail through the forest is fairly long, and there is a path that leads up to a garden made by a famous film maker (if I recall correctly). We stayed on the main path but I don't think we went all the way through. After exiting the forest we took a snack break at a small stand and walked back to the train station, walking along the river and back across the bridge.

(Check out all of the Kyoto photos from this trip here!)

It looks like our next weekend destination is to Himeji to see what is apparently the best castle in Japan. Then after that, it's time for the Tokyo Game Show and more Tokyo sightseeing!