Day 8 - Arashiyama

We decided to start today by exploring the area around our apartment, as there are views of nearby temples from our one tiny window. First, we headed to the station to pick up some maps and leaflets from the tourist information centre. The only problem was that it is closed for 2 days a month, and we happened to pick one of these to visit. Still, we managed to find a couple of maps and headed to the station's Sky Garden for some awesome views over the city.

Next, we wandered off to find Higashi Honganji, a temple complex just down the road from where we're staying. We managed to find a dragon water fountain, and an entire tour group wearing hard hats. We were a bit confused until we realised that the large shed-like thing in the middle of the complex was actually a shell enclosing the biggest of the temple buildings. We decided that activities requiring protective equipment should probably be avoided, so took off our shoes and headed into another one of the temples to have a look around.

We went back to the apartment to hide from the midday heat, picking up some sushi for Sarah on the way. Helen's attempts to decode the kanji on the box seemed to fail after identifying the shrimp roll, but Sarah valiantly continued, despite eating what may or may not have been pickled squid.

After a couple of hours we went back to the station and got on a train for Arashiyama, an area to the north-west of Kyoto. We walked to Tenryu-ji, a temple that is classed as a world heritage site, and wandered through its beautiful gardens that stretched from the river up into the bamboo groves of the hills surrounding the area. We were probably there for over an hour just watching giant carp swim through the ponds and dragonflies zooming between trees.

Unfortunately, we couldn't spend all afternoon there, because we still had one thing left to do. Crossing the river, we walked to the entrance of the Arashiyama Monkey Park. Now, I say entrance, because it seems that the park decided to trick people into thinking that the park was close by, by putting the entrance booth at the bottom of the hill. So we happily payed our entrance fees and headed up a path, before looking at the leaflet we had just been handed. Let's just say the words '150m climb' and 'mountain path' were present. It took almost half an hour to reach the viewing area at the very top of the hill, but it was definitely worth it because the first thing we say was 4 monkeys take a running, screaming dive into a pond.

That's the thing about this park: it's not a zoo, the animals aren't in cages and the people aren't in charge. Essentially, the people running it put out food, toys and cool water holes and sprays that attract wild monkeys from the hills to the area around this hut. People walk up, go into an air-conditioned room, and see the monkeys as they play around free outside. Not only were the monkeys great fun to watch, but the view across Kyoto was amazing and after a cold drink and some shaved ice the climb didn't seem so terrible either.

Exhausted, we headed home, buying a fan along the way to keep us cool. We had been holding off, thinking we would look a bit silly, but after a week here it's clear that fans are the norm, so when Sarah found one with bunnies on, there was no question that it would be coming back with us.

Tomorrow we visit some of the more famous spots in Kyoto, such as the Golden Pavillion of Kinkaku-ji and the zen garden of Ryoan-ji.