Countries Of My Life: Kyoto - Day of the Animals

Breakfast
I woke up at 8am but the other two were still sleeping. So I used the chance to wash myself and getting a breakfast. The buffet of the Hotel was quite okay, you got a mix of western and Japanese food (Miso Soup, Rise, Tofu, etc.). I just took a western mix, because after over 4 months I really missed Chips and Toast :D

Good Start in the Day ;)

Fushimi Inari Shrine
Our first destination of the day was the Fushimari Inari Shrine. This place is especially famous for its 1,000 gates that are placed like alleys within the area. Depending on the route, you need about 2 hours to the top.

But for me, the most exciting things were the dozens of little animal statues. Most of the time, we saw foxes (popular spirits in Japan, related to shrines), but also cows, snakes and even frogs :) Besides the statues, we saw some cats withing the area. They seemed to be really well and clean, so they might be from the houses near the temple.

Even Japanese Cats pose in front of a camera :D

Another special thing were the wooden plates from the temple. You saw them probably before (also in this blog), on them people write down their wishes, hang them in the proper place and have so a better chance that their wishes come true ;) The plates at this temple were shaped like a foxes face and people could draw on it to create their own foxes. There were some really good drawings on some of them :)

Japan - Home of the so many Artists :)

The whole area was mainly consisting the famous gates, many graves and little shrines, as far as we saw it. Because we planned to meet a friend of Oliver, we went halfway to the top and took then another way back to the station.

30 out of 1,000 Gates ^^

Arashiyama
From the temple, we walked to Arashiyama, which lies a bit outside of the city center from Kyoto. On our way, we walked a long a big river called Oi River (says Wikipedia). Our goal here was a famous bridge which is also on many post cards. Quite nice, but for me was the nature more fascinating, as always. Man made stuff is cool, but only a few of these things in the world can beat Nature in terms of beauty and wonders ;) (says the Programmer :D)

Iwatayama Monkey Park
At the station of Arashiyama, we met Jacki, one of Olivers friends from his study and, it was pure coincidence, a friend of Taka too. So I was the only one who met her for the first time :D

The Way up to the Mountain

Before you can actually see the monkeys, you have to go from the entrance up to a mountain where they live. And when I say mountain, I really mean one :D It was far more higher than I expected ;) But the reward is first, a fantastic view over Kyoto and second, seeing real living monkeys walking right next to you.

From the Top of the Mountain

They are all wild monkeys, so they can go wherever they want. But of course, who would go from a place where you can get food regularly? :D They are really used to humans, they even ignored the permanent clicking of all the cameras. Bu be warned, if you anger them, they show your place ;) So better remember: DO NOT mess around with monkeys :D

Okay, this really sounds harder as it is. Being outside with the monkeys was just pure fune and excitement. As you probably know, I love wild animals, so I really enjoyed this place. And concerning your safety: There are employees of the park who watch out that neither people or monkeys anger each other. But not with whips or so, they just had something like a broom for "hard cases", but I didn't see one used.

Feeding Time!

Of course, I saw that monkeys are no pets. For example: A monkey felt threatened by Jacki and hit her a bit on her trousers. But after this he just bite in his hand, like he knew that he did something wrong oO No one could be mad about him after you saw this. They are intelligent, so they know how to deal with humans :D

Real Monkeys Don't Fear Heights ;)

Exciting was also the fact that you could feed them from the inside of a small house. Instead of windows, there were meshs, so the monkeys could climb up on them, put one arm between the mesh and you could give them peanuts or pieces of apples without danger. You can buy the food within the house and of course, you can just use this. And only for 100Yen, I got two hand full of peanuts or apples. Really, I expected this to be expensive, because its really fun ^^

Peace-Offering between Jacki and a Monkey

And how funny it was! Most of the times, the monkeys grab the food you are offering and eat it in front of you. But some of them didn't seem to like peanuts for example, so they just threw it away or slapped it from your hand :D

It was also a live experience to see their hierarchic behavior live :) You could see who the boss was. (biggest balls ;) He was huge compared to the others and I bet he would win against a human ^^ But like I said: All of them were nice to us. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" ;)

And there were even more of them: baby monkeys, lousing monkeys, monkeys just staring at Kyoto from above and probably having philosophical thoughts (I bet I could have sit next to them and they wouldn't have mind), eating monkeys when a zookeeper threw food outside and many of them came at once, sleeping monkeys and so on.

If you are in Kyoto someday, don't miss this park! Whoever likes animals, will not regret this :) By the way, Jacki recommend this place, so she was the only reason why we came here. I cannot say enough "Thank You, Jacki!" at this place :D

As Always: Take Care of Your Nuts! :D

Kiyomizu Temple
Unfortunately, we already had to say またねえ！ to Jacki. The three of us went then to the Kiyomizudera. There we met again someone. This time another friend of Taka called Marie with Daniel and Seiji from Osaka. We visited together the temple, but unfortunately, it was just dark. So shooting photos was hard, but it was even without them a great view and we all talked much to get to know each other. But despite this, the temple was a bit disappointing because it was really short. Or we were just used to go in temples with huge areas :D

View To Kyoto

When we went out, we discovered that the temple was illuminated short after we went through but for going in again, we would have to pay again too. And waiting was way too long, even for Japanese measures. It was also speculated that even if we would have stayed within the temple, we would have been politely asked to go out before the illumination starts. But anyway, nice trip ^^

Ritual Washing Extreme ;)

Curry and the way home
To end this day, we went to the main station after a bit of confusion where to go, waiting on the bus line and being stuck in a small traffic jam with the bus. There we searched for a restaurant that have place for 6 people, but this was easier than said ;) We finally found a Curry restaurant with really good curry. Even my "normal" curry was good spiced. After the meal, most of us had red faces :D

So our little groups who have joined for a short time had now to split up again. I hope I will see the others again soon ^^ We, the Tokyo Group, went into the Shinkansen and then home. Bye guys! :)