The Philosopher's Path and Arashiyuma

Breakfast is included in our hotel here in Kyoto and we were excited. We hate traipsing the streets in the early morning, hungry and half asleep. Usually finding nothing appetising anyway. Breakfast was, interesting. A bit of en eclectic mix of noodles, pasta, bread and jam, mini buns, cabbage, tofu, eggs and some kind of deep fried potato fritter things. Our plan for the day was to tackle Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji in the morning. Followed by a stint at Arashiyuma in the afternoon.

Ginkaku-ji

We decided taking mainly buses, because the trains don't connect as well here. Ginkaku-ji, or the silver pavilion, is surrounded by a meandering garden. It was quite busy, but nice to wander through. We didn't bother going inside, as we weren't overly excited when we entered other temples, and it costs more.

After leaving Ginkaku-ji, if you head straight down the road you will soon come to the Philosopher's path. It is named for a Philosopher who walked there daily, and runs beside a canal. Judging by all the budding trees, it is beautiful when the cherry trees flower. unfortunately we seem about a week too soon for most of the trees around here. There are still a few dotted here and there that seem to have got a bit excited and bloomed earlier than the others.

The Philosopher's path unceremoniously dumps you out onto a T-intersection with no map or signs to guide you. We turned left an did come across a sign pointing us to Nanzen-ji. Nanzen-ji is also a Zen Buddhist temple and most of the grounds are free to roam. By far the most interesting aspect is the random aqueduct that runs through a section of the compound. After some wandering here we caught a bus to the Gion district to have a bit of a look around and some lunch.

Cool dragon on the ceiling of a building

Pancakes and a coffee hit the spot that breakfast missed. There were a lot of girls, and even guys, dressed in kimonos wandering around and taking selfies. After a quick stroll around a look at the Yasaka-jinja shrine, we hopped on another bus to head across town to Arashiyuma. And then we got off that bus and on another that actually took us to Arashiyuma.

Gion

Yasaka-jinja Shrine

When we arrived at Arashiyuma we headed in the direction of the famed bamboo forests, or so we hoped. We did end up finding them, but then being completely unsure of how to get to our next stop, Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama. But first, the bamboo forest. It was as I expected from the pictures, except with more people, and cars... That's right, a couple cars drove through while we were walking, forcing the people to cling to the edge of the path so as not to be driven over. I found the bamboo forest to be quite underwhelming overall. But since it is free and pretty cool just to stroll through, I would recommend having a look at it.

Brandon with the unwashed masses

A different perspective away from all the people

We eventually found our way to the monkey park, paid our 500yen entry fees and started the long hike up hill. There is a great view of Kyoto from the top, where the monkeys actually are. I had my zoom lens on and couldn't be bothered changing over just for city views. The monkey park is odd. I knew it was going to be odd though so I wasn't shocked, just bemused. When you reach the top there is a little viewing area where you can look out over Kyoto, and there are Japanese Macaques running around everywhere. There a small building with mesh windows that you can enter and buy food to feed to the monkeys through the mesh for 100yen. I didn't really feel like doing it because it was off putting to see older monkeys clinging to the mesh with one hand stuck through waiting for food to be put in it. Apparently the park is also a research centre. Seems unlikely.

This dude was looking at me weird

Brandon's new mate

Food please

A girl feeding a little monkey

After the monkey park, and a rushed decent to find a dropped scarf, we managed to hail a taxi for the trip to our next destination. Did I mention it was FREEZING and RAINING. Only on and off rain, and only heavy sometimes. I had seen photos of Otagi Nenbutsu and immediately wanted to go see it. It did not disappoint. It was even cooler than I had expected. There are hundreds of these little Buddha statues all around the grounds and every single one is different! There was even one holding a tennis racket. Most of the statues, and a lot of the walls and paths, have a moss coating. Which gives the whole area a nice atmosphere. Since it is out of town, we weren't about to get another taxi, so we walked back. It didn't really take that long, especially since we had some delicious cinnamon curl things to snack on. Even if it did pour down rain for half the walk. We hopped on a train and were back at Kyoto station in almost no time compared to our bus journeys earlier.

I am so glad we didn't attempt to see as many temples/shrines as possible. I think there is a very real risk of overdoing it to the point where you just don't care. Things like the monkey parks have really helped to break it up and make it more interesting overall.