Kyoto - Day 1 - Bamboo Forest

The Bamboo Forest of Arashiyama paths which are over 500 meters long, are set between Tenryuji temple and Nonomiya Shrine. The Japanese have a long history with bamboo, in myths and legends, metaphorically linking a man's strength with this plant. Still, it is not often we get the chance to see bamboo forests in their natural state that grow thick and line the path like they do here.

It's impossible to capture the serenity and the peaceful atmosphere that is in the bamboo forest in pictures. They don't do the forest justice at all. I wish we would have been there early morning, before the crowds just as the sun start peeking through the stems. Now it was late afternoon, a lot of people and to noisy to really enjoy the peaceful path. It was also so late that the sun was setting and the light was pretty bad in inside the path, but still, the pictures show the beautiful trees and I'm very happy we were able to visit this, as it was one of my top "must sees" for Kyoto. 

Stopping for a bamboo flavored ice cream.

After the bamboo forest, it was just before 5pm, and we realized that we weren't going to be able to see the last stop of our list for the day. That special temple closed at 5pm, so we walked through Arashiyama back to the station to take the train back to the hotel. 

Kyoto - Day 1 - Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama

The hike up the mountain was pretty long and even if it doesn't look very steep on the pictures below, it was a few parts of the trail that was more steep than others and it was a pretty hard workout! With kids we had to watch their steps so that they wouldn't slide off the trail here and there. The hike took about 30 minutes, and there were several benches along the trail so that one would be able to take a break. The closer we came to the top, the more we started to look around to see if we could see any of the wild monkeys.

The park boasts about 120 snow monkeys, which are also called “Japanese macaque.” They are native to Japan, and, yes, these are the type of monkeys seen in photos in which they’re bathing at hot springs in winter. While the monkeys are human-fed (even tourists have a chance to feed them), they are still wild, the park assures. The “don’t stare” and don’t touch warnings should be followed especially as they came really close at times!!

First monkey spotted!! On the ground next to the tree in the middle.

Pretty excited to finally see the monkey!

This guy was so close, and I was almost scared that the kids would be too brave and get closer, I got Chris to watch out when I took pictures. As they see fast movements and staring in the eyes as a threat, and one can never know when the monkey feels stressed or if he will attack.

Cassandra was so close to this one, and when I took pictures, he started to move down the hill, and while I still stood still waiting for him to pass, he walked so close so he touched my leg walking by! Iiiih, that was an almost too close experience for me too!

There was a playground for the kids, and we kept laughing and joking about that the monkey would jump up on the see-saw and play with Ben and Bella.

The highlight for the kids were when they got to feed the monkeys. Here, they are very strict that you are not allowed to feed the monkeys anything out in the park. This because then the monkeys would maybe start jumping on you to try to get food, and you could get hurt. Now they know that they are only being fed when the HUMANS are inside the cage. This was pretty funny, standing outside the cage taking pictures on the same side as the monkeys and looking into the cage to see my family!

I'm pretty happy about how some of these photographs came out!!

The koi fish in the water looking up upon the monkey.

Not sure if to jump in or not!

Trying to reach the fish maybe?

And the little guy fell in!

The kids loved this - 

baby monkeys chasing each other around the pond again and again and again...

The kids wanted to reach out so bad and touch them, but we kept telling them that they are wild, and you can really get hurt if they attack them, so they didn't!!

An old motorbike turned into playground!

We stayed for a long while, almost too long as we still had plans for the afternoon, before we hiked down the mountain again. The picture above is the mountain we hiked up. At the very top is where the monkey park is located!