Kyoto Day 2 (Agashimiya)

We were headed to Arashiyama today and I spent some time mapping out the route and it looked like it would take an hour. I made a terrible error at the transfer station though, I didn’t realize what the icon meant on google maps and thought it was a bus so when the routing dropped us off at a bus station, I was really confused and just got on a random bus. Then we got off immediately at the next stop once I realized my error. When I looked later, I realized I should have been looking for a light rail station at the transfer point that would have taken us directly there. In any case, after we got off the bus we were in the middle of nowhere but luckily I had downloaded the JapanTaxi app and I requested a car. The first car was a 12 minute wait so I cancelled and found something that would come faster. It ended up being a $30 taxi to the area.

In the temple staring at the creek

We headed to the Tenryuji Temple and bamboo grove - crowded as you can imagine. I had no idea everyone came to Kyoto for the fall colors. I was folloing a suggested walk from a blog I read in the hopes in getting away from the grounds. It had us going through the temple and bamboo grove but going higher up. The crowds did die down and feel almost peaceful. It also took us to a nice river viewpoint. We spent some time walking around the park/river more and then crossed the river to head to the Monkey Park. We still needed to find lunch but just got some street food from a vendor.

Crowded walk around the gardens

Heading up in the garden but still crowded

At the viewpoint and finally the crowds are minimal!

Heading down from the viewpoint but meandering through some side paths

Enjoying the river walk

Couldn't stop the kids from running out onto this rock

An elderly Japanese man built this miniature boat and was driving it around

The Monkey park was quite a hike uphill and when we got closer, the kids found another metal slide to play on which distracted them for a while. The monkeys themselves are everywhere around you. I had never seen anything like it. We bought some food to feed the monkeys which was fun but scary at times because they wanted to grab the food quickly. We got on a train back to the hotel afterwards to rest.

Monkey park

I picked a yakiniku place for dinner where you ordered the meat on an iPad and the kids loved it so much. Hannah said it was the best meal ever.

Dinner!