Monkeying around in Kyoto

Monday morning came extremely fast as we had to be up by 5am and be ready to leave the hotel at 6. We took a train to Tokyo station and then boarded the Shinkansen (bullet train) which left for Kyoto promptly at 7am. In my opinion this is the best way to get to Kyoto as the alternative night bus takes about 10 hours and costs only 30% less than shinkansen tickets. The train takes 3 hours, so it is more than 60% faster but only 30% more expensive - the time you save makes it very worth while.

We slept most of the way and before we knew it we were in Kyoto by 10am. We spent some time in the station itself. You have to see this place to believe it. It stretched way above the city skyline and includes a hotel, shopping mall and department store. It has all manner of restaurants, travel agents, info booths and stores. The architecture is very modern and is a stark contrast to the old temples and shrines that the city is known for. We got a quick snack, placed our luggage in a locker (since we couldn't check into the hotel until after 3) and headed out to explore Kyoto.

We had decided to start in the northwest corner of the city with one of the most famous attractions - Kinkakuji. This is also known as the golden pavilion. We took a bus from the station which was labeled express (not really as express as you would think) and within 30 minutes we were at the gates to the complex. At this point I can mention that it was raining, not heavily but raining none the less. This was going to cramp our style a bit since there was bound to be quite a bit of walking to do.

The gold pavilion is beautiful. It sits on a picturesque pond within a perfectly manicured environment. it is hard to believe anyone can keep things that perfect without any crew visible. we walked around the grounds for a bit, taking as many pictures as we could and then headed out to the street. We walked to our next sightseeing spot - Ryoanji. Ryoanji is a temple complex but it is most well known for its impressive zen garden. The garden is full of small pebbles that are raked into perfect straight lines except for when they meet the large rock and moss areas. The whole spot is very peaceful even when full of tourists. Erica and I broke out our Kyoto book to decide what to do next. We decided on a spot a bit south west of Ryoanji near the river. We walked from the temple around a beautiful pond and about a half mile to a small train station.

The train was really more of a tram. It was a small rickety single car that poked along at a rather slow pace. The engine seemed to be hiccuping and making all manner of odd noises on the way. We had to change to yet another tram (identical in every way, including noises) and arrived at Arashiyama about 30 minutes later.

From here we walked across a bridge and to the entry of our destination - the monkey park. There was a small set of stairs and an even smaller shrine outside the gate. Surprisingly no one was there. We bought our tickets and headed through a gate and up some old brick stairs. Then our climb began. We walked up a hill then up a long set of stairs and around the mountain. All along the way seeing signs about not feeding the monkeys or even showing them food, also not to stare at the monkeys. I had to laugh - i mean we have seen things like this in the states. Signs leading you to believe that maybe you are in a little danger only to realize that you are all too safe. At this point i am prepared not to see any monkeys at all as we had seemingly climbed half way up monkey mountain and hadn't seen or heard a fricken monkey.

Just when i thought we were nearing the top i could see that we were only half way. Now began a long series of switchbacks up the remainder of the climb. It was fairly treacherous as the rain made it slick and not all areas had hand rails or guard rails. If you weren't careful you could get hurt. We were taking a breather and i turned to look below at are path. There, right where we had been walking only moments before, was a monkey. We aren't talking small rhesus monkey here, this thing looked to be the size of my dog. I was shocked - Erica was shocked. Perhaps my skepticism was unwarranted, at least we saw one monkey though it was far away and had waited until we left to reveal itself.

We went through another set of switch backs and suddenly a monkey started screaming from a tree just behind Erica. She screamed, i jumped, now we realized that the situation was different - there were monkeys, big monkeys and we had yet to see a single person. As we rounded the last switchback and could partially see the safehouse at the top of the hill the situation was fully realized; 2 people versus 50 or so of our simian cousins. They didn't seem afraid of us at all - in fact it was quite the opposite. I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind of the two of us being killed by angry 60 pound mini gorillas, especially since the signs had explicitly noted not to stare at them. We had come too far to turn back so we moved up the path and finally someone came out of the safehouse as i was certain we were about to be overrun by monkeys - he looked at me and said "Please, just inside now". We weren't asking any questions just averted our eyes from the monkeys and walked quickly inside.

Inside the safehouse you can buy some food (for yourself or the monkeys) and rest for a bit. We decided to buy some monkey food and as soon as the 100 yen coin hit the counter the windows were crawling with monkeys. All of the windows were covered in fencing and had a wooden shelf which you could place food on. There were signs showing you the proper way to feed them and handy tidbits like how to avoid injury to your face - good to know. The monkeys all had the same shtick. They would climb to the window, mothers would bring their babies clutched to them for extra effect. They would stretch their hands in and beckon while the look on their faces was one of "i know you are gonna feed me so just give me the fricken food already". We tried to take lots of pictures and after 45 minutes we decided to head on to our next stop. One of the workers escorted us outside to point the way down and made a monkey pose with us for a picture. We carefully climbed back down the path and back out to the river.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so walking to the bamboo forest. This was a beautiful sight. The bamboo is 50 feet high and is so dense it would be hard to walk between the stalks. We then decided to walk to the JR station to use our rail pass and get back to Kyoto station and check in to the hotel. Well the first station we came to wasn't the right one. So we kept walking. The rain had gotten harder and the next 45 minutes were extremely long. By the time we got back to Kyoto station we were drenched and tired. We retrieved our bags from the locker and waited for the shuttle to the hotel. It was great to finally get into some dry clothes. Our first day in Kyoto was definitely a memorable one and we were looking forward to the rest of our stay, despite the fact that it was going to rain the whole time.

(stay tuned for the next post about Tuesday and deer)