Before I left on my 1pm shinkansen ride back to Tokyo, I decided to squeeze in one quick visit to the town of Arashiyama. One of the top 30 things to do in Japan in my guide book mentioned a bamboo forest located in Arashiyama. It looked incredible, so I jumped on the train and was in the town in about 15 minutes. I saw 3 amazing sites in this town.
1. A monkey reserve!!
2. A beautiful zen garden
3. The bamboo forest
After paying my entrance fee, I made the 20 minute hike up the mountain- about 165 meters up! At the top was a station that studied the monkeys and also allowed visitors to feed them. They are wild, so we were behind bars! I was the only visitor at the time.
I will post the answers in a comment...
Mom, Dans and Lex, thought you'd appreciate this sign!
Ready for a snack...
I got to feed them apples!
Momma and nursing baby, grandma was nearby and got angry when I came too close!
Views of Arashiyama, and you can even see Kyoto from here too!
My next stop was the gardens of a Buddhist temple: the photos say it all. And even though it was crowded in there, the garden paths can quickly lead you to a quiet place.
Here is the bamboo forest! It was so quiet in there!
Answers to the Monkey quiz:
ReplyDelete1. The type of Monkey is Macaque
2. They prefer to eat cicadas
3. The monkeys fear all 3!
The Bamboo forest looks soooo coool and magical. Wow. I've never seen/been in something like that. Arashiyama looks totally worth it!
ReplyDeleteI got 2/3 on the monkey quiz (missed #3). Macaque is the same type of monkey that live on the Rock of Gibraltar at the Southern tip of Spain (but owned by Great Britain). So I could recognize the monkey.
I was trying to see if I could translate that monkey park sign.
ReplyDeleteOsaru dake ja nai monkey park. Tokai ni inai tori ya shika mo sagashitemiyou.
I know basically no kanji, so I had to look it up to even find out that you pronounce those characters "tokai." The only part I don't understand is what "tokai ni inai" means. Without that, it would be something like, "Monkey Park's not just monkeys. Let's look for birds and deer too!" I found someone's blog entry where they talk about a better translation of that sign. Turns out "tokai ni inai" means something like "which aren't in the city." That seems a little unnecessary...!
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3589
After Kara no Kyoukai, I'll never see bamboo forests the same way again.