Although this trip overall is mostly an opportunity to revisit my original itinerary from 2011, which meant to visit completely new places. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to return to Kyoto as my travel coincided with the last night of Hanatouro.
I left Ikebukuro early, threw my luggage in a coin locker, and snuck in a Sunday morning mass with a church in Ginza. It will surprise no one that once again, Filipinos made the majority of the 8 am choir. Once mass was over, it was a quick trip to grab my stuff out of the coin locker and the belated exchange to get my 14-day JR Pass.
It was an uneventful trip out to Kyoto complete with a eki-ben!
Getting to Kyoto early, meant that I finally had the opportunity to visit Arashiyama. It was great to finally see the bamboo forest up close. With the sun starting to set, it was just about time to head back to make it back in time for the beginning of Hanatouro. That is, until I ran into a group of foreigners who asked me about finding the monkeys. And I had no interest in the monkeys, and I couldn't quite help them. But after they left, I realized they were looking on the wrong side of the river. Sure enough, when I crossed back I easily found the signs for them.
What I didn't realize, is that to see the monkeys, it's a bit of a little* climb up the mountain. When I got to the admission gate, I got a friendly reminder from the attendant that I had less than 30 minutes to get there before the monkeys went away for the night. And so, approximately 20 tiring power hiked minutes later, I was at the summit, surrounded by uncaged monkeys that you are repeated to never look in the eyes.
(* And by little, I assume that a 160 meter vertical climb is relatively little.)
It was fun to see fairly chilled out monkeys wandering around, and to have a nice view back into Kyoto. It was impressive for the parents who brought their kids, since the hike isn't terribly easy. That being said, let's never do that again.
I'll talk about Hanatouro possibly in a follow up post.
Please enjoy the photos from Kyoto in the meantime!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wake-eat-sleep/sets/72157633016779177/
-- wake.eat.sleep