Arashiyama

Saturday morning: up, eat brekkies, and head out to the train station near the dorms. From there it was off to Arashiyama: it's on the far edge of Kyoto. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. It is highly, highly, highly recommended. First we went to a zen temple: Tenryoji? Something like that in name, i've got it on a ticket stub somewhere. That lake, (of the four pictures bottom left) is at the temple. It's fall colors are to die for, it's got some lovely statues, but mostly just go to see all of the pretty scenery, unless you're a religion buff and want to learn about every sect of Buddhism. Then we walked through the bamboo forest, which was quite literally right outside the back gate of the temple. It's pretty cool to be able to say you walked through a bamboo forest, I think! The bamboo trees were incredibly tall! 

Then, after managing to decipher a map we took a left at the edge of the forest and found ourselves taking the long way toward our third destination. Not that I minded at all, when it had us walk along a riverbank. The water and the trees, and the boats rowing all over it were amazingly beautiful. I just can't imagine falling into that water....freezing! Can we say: where is a new wardrobe because I will catch my death if I wear these wet clothes? So we crossed the river, on this absolutely crowded bridge. Following this time, we found the signs were were looking for, and climbed a mountain....never ever again.

Somebody, who shall remain nameless, told me it was likely to rain. This meant I needed to wear my boots, which have a heel on them, or have sopping wet feet all day. Well, it wasn't going to rain--wrong city's weather...and even though the cities are close, yes it does make quite a difference. Sooooooo yeah, hiked a mountain in boots with a heel (not a narrow heel thank you very much, a nice wide one) however I still managed to twist my ankle. In defense....I uhh probably could have managed that without the heels, with my stupid ankles. :D

So we climbed this mountain: to a monkey park!! It was so cool. This monkey, as we're walking up the trail, just walks right past, a foot from us! ...course thats not quite as exciting when I think that I put apple on my hand and fed monkeys, or that they're all willing to come pretty close. I felt bad for the baby monkeys: big fat monkeys chased them away from the food!

So, then we headed back, walked down the trail, about this time I noticed the pain in my ankle, walked around some shops, found out we walked the long way---by taking the short way back and realizing we'd been all but the last 20 yards or so toward that bridge at lunch time, before going into the temple. If there hadn't been so many people, I'm sure we would have noticed it earlier. Rode a really slow train (street car?) back to the main part of Kyoto, got off, transferred, decided we wanted to check out Gion again.

Uhh...if you can't afford to go into a shop, and trust me they're ALL expensive you're not going to see a whole ton in Gion unless you're pretty lucky. It's all lit up, and looks old, but you'd have to do some waiting to see a geisha or maiko (geisha in training--and btw geisha isnt what they call themselves so much) walking around between appointments. So, we headed back to Hirakata, and to our respectives homes..

Oh! a note...DO NOT be at Hirakata station when all the shops close.....man those metal doors over the shops screech!!! OWWIE!

All future travellers to Japan: women, do not do as the Japanese women do and wear high heels all the time. Even if you do not think you will go hiking...bring tennis shoes! And definitely, if in Kyoto check out Arashiyama!