There was a lot on the itinerary, and we're still not really used to the time change, so Sabrina and I headed down to breakfast at 7:30 AM. Michael and Sarah opted out of the traditional ryokan offering.
It's certainly not my usual fare, but anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right?
The staff was enthusiastic about helping us do things correctly, and trying to explain what things were, with absolutely zero English. Thankfully, I had Sabrina to try everything first and tell me what it was.
After breakfast, we returned to the room, packed up, checked out, and stored our luggage at reception; we weren't quite ready to head to the next accommodation yet, but had to check out by 10 AM.
The last thing we wanted to see on this side of Kyoto was the Arashiyama Monkey Park, which didn't open until 9. This coffee shop, en route, also didn't open until 9, and there was a line down the block for it.
The weather was absolutely beautiful as we strolled across the bridge over the Katsura River and up to the monkey park.
The park had a lot of rules.
The park had a lot of stairs.
As we reached the area at the top where the monkeys were currently hanging around, we caught a glimpse of several of them in the trees.
A few smaller/younger macaques were rolling around and roughhousing in the dirt.
Some of them just sat by the edge of the trail and watched us go by, without moving a muscle.
Some were much more active, running across or down the stairs...
... causing some visitors to recoil in disgust/fear.
I suspect the macaques do not appreciate the views of Kyoto as much as we did.
At the top, there is a "shed" where visitors can buy small amounts of food to feed to the monkeys. To do so, one has to go into the cage of a building and feed the monkeys from the inside. Because of this, it was a popular hangout spot.
Sabrina was not enthusiastic about the proximity of the monkeys, and definitely not interested in feeding them.
This woman was focused on getting the perfect shot of a monkey on the outside of the cage, and missed the one that walked within a few feet of her.
Some of them were not shy at all, and wandered through the crowds of onlookers, seeming to enjoy people's alarmed responses or scattering.
While Sabrina was keeping a close eye on a monkey in front of her, this sneaky fellow seized the opportunity to slip through the unguarded side.
The feeding procedure is to drop a bit of food (peanut or piece of fruit) on the ledge by the screen, and let the monkeys grab them. There are signs suggesting that it's not a good idea to hand the food to them directly, so we definitely did not do that. If we had, though, it would've been absolved by generous application of hand sanitizer on the way out the door. But we didn't.
Sabrina watched through the screen, wondering if the rest of us have lost our minds.
While not actively pursuing handouts at the screen, the go-to lounging spot seemed to be the roof of the building.
On our way down the other side, we caught a few mutual-bug-picking sessions in progress.
Having completed the monkey park portion of today's itinerary, we wandered back over the river around 10:45 AM.
By then, we were ready for second breakfast, so we stopped at a patisserie across the street from the coffee shop with the line down the street.
After retrieving our bags, we hauled them back to the main drag to find the Arashiyama train station. Despite just having a coffee and pastry not even an hour prior, I couldn't resist the temptation of the crème brulée donut, especially not after Sarah and Michael's recommendation.
Eventually, we caught the train (more of a tram/streetcar, really) east a few miles, then transferred to the subway. We took the subway the rest of the way across the city, over to the Higashiyama Ward. There, we changed trains again to the Keihan Line.
It had been almost an hour again, so we tried another local delicacy. This was Taiyaki, a light batter cooked in something like a waffle iron in the shape of a fish, filled with a little bit of custard creme.
We took that final train a few stops, then walked along the river a few blocks to our next hotel, HIYORI Stay Kyoto Kamogawa.
We're going to be here for the next week (ish), using it as a home base for exploring the area via day trips and such.
Again, we were too early to check in (it wasn't even 1 o'clock), but we were able to leave our bags at reception and venture out immediately to continue our itinerary.
But first, we needed some actual food other than small pastries, so we ducked into a 7-Eleven to grab a few hot bites.
I was tempted by the... chicken salad... bar? but went with some gyoza and chicken-on-a-stick instead.
Our ultimate destination was the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine (complex), about two miles south of the hotel. The weather was perfect, and there's some rain in the forecast, so we decided to seize the day by walking the streets of Kyoto instead of getting back on the train.
Along the way, we stopped to see the small Takio Shrine, sort of randomly located in a regular city block. The sole guy working there was very excited to have visitors.
It was a fairly quiet walk through some peaceful neighborhoods, until we arrived at the main road to Fushimi Inari and found all of the people.
Again with the rules. (This is an unspoken/unwritten rule literally everywhere, though.)
For the next 2 hours or so, we climbed thousands and thousands of stairs over several miles of walking path, stopping occasionally for a drink or brief sit.
We did pause and have some discussion, at one of these maps, about whether or not we were up to the task; we concluded that we'd already come this far, so we might as well commit to doing the full loop across the top.
The higher we went, the thinner the crowds got.
Along the way, there were several small plazas with beautiful views of the city (helpfully labeled "nice view" or something like that, on some of the maps).
The stairs were never-ending, and the path was occasionally in rough shape, making some of the walking difficult.
Including the stops to study the maps, the stops to admire the views, the stops to catch our breaths, and the stops to let people ahead of us have their Instagram photoshoots, it was almost 2 grueling hours to the summit of Mount Inari, where there was one final shrine at the top.
(I can't imagine doing this while it's actually hot or humid.)
It was after 4 PM by then, and we still had plenty of today remaining in the queue, so we continued the loop and descended back to the start. Nearly 2 hours up from the bottom, it was only about 40 minutes to get back down.
Along the way, we speculated about the inscriptions on the columns but didn't take the time to actually translate any of them (i.e., have Google do it).
It seemed like some people had possibly settled in to watch the sunset, although they had at least an hour and a half to go.
Back down at the bottom, I wondered how many stairs we had just climbed. The feeling of my legs agreed with this AI Overview from Google, but it seems implausibly high.
As we still hadn't actually checked into the hotel yet, we decided to head back there next (via train).
On the slim chance we end up at this particular restaurant, I figured I might as well have this photo available.
We took the train a few stops back to the hotel, checked in, unpacked. decompressed for a few minutes, cleaned up, and then headed out in search of dinner.
Fast forward to almost 8 PM, and we were at a small place specializing in roasted chicken and tacos, just a few blocks from the hotel.
After dinner, we decided to keep this day going by exploring most of the length of a "night walk" route from one of our guidebooks. It had gotten significantly colder, though, so first we stopped back at the hotel to bundle up.
To do this, we got back on the train and headed north a few stops, back to where we'd done the last transfer earlier today, to start at the top of Pontocho alley.
In addition to being an interesting after-dinner stroll venue, we were also scouting food options for future evenings.
At the bottom of Pontocho, we picked up the suggested walking route through the Gion district.
After a few twists and turns, we ended our night walk at the Yasaka Shrine.
It was beautifully illuminated, and nearly devoid of tourists.
Leaving the shrine, we hopped back on the Keihan train for a few stops. It was just before 11 PM when we finally returned to the hotel.
There's no onsen at this hotel, so I might need to try the soaker tub instead. However, this hotel is somewhat more high-tech than what we're used to; for example, there are several control panels to manage the shower/bath equipment. Also, all of the screens, buttons, and voice feedback are in Japanese. Thankfully, there's a QR code that leads to a website with explanations in multiple languages for how to use the shower.
The data on our phones is all slightly different, but my phone thinks I climbed 76 flights of stairs today, and walked more than 31k steps.
Tomorrow, we expect a slower pace and some rain. It's also going to be significantly colder. This is why we decided to squeeze more walking in this evening, after dinner.
1 comment:
Loved the Monkey Park! Fushimi Inari is always great. You were lucky that the weather cooperated.
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