02 Jun

Day 7 – Massive Kyoto Tour

 

After a good night’s sleep, we woke up and took turns showering and getting ready for the day.

We had decided to do a Hop on Hop off tour today, so first we walked to the metro stop to catch a train to Kyoto station.

The map at the metro has a helpful picture of Fushimi Inari!

When we arrived back at Kyoto Station, we decided we were hungry. I remembered passing a Mr. Donut the morning before so we decided to go there.

For context purposes – at some point earlier in the week, I was leading us somewhere and Ally questioned me.

I said, “I don’t mean to brag, but I have a really good sense of direction.” She laughed and said I was bragging, and I’m pretty sure she did not believe me.

This morning, when I said I could find Mr. Donut again in this massive station, she absolutely did not believe me. She said, “How on earth are you going to find something we passed once while winding through this place for 20 minutes yesterday?”

I laughed and said, “I don’t mean to brag, but I have a really good sense of direction…”

Then, as much as she wanted a donut, she wanted me to be wrong more. Lol! But I wasn’t!

Woohoo!

After we ate, we went out to the bus stop and hopped on!

Here we are!

They gave us all earphones so we could listen to a recorded tour of what we were passing. In English!

We passed a lot of neat things, but we didn’t stay on too long. We were headed towards Arashiyama first. We had to get off the bus and catch a train there.

We’re here! We walked towards the town.

Our first goal was a walk up the side of the mountain to Monkey Park! Yes, you read that right. Monkey park.

This was before the walk up the side of the mountain, when we were still feeling good!

Monkey’s this way!

Tom Bricker had said this was a climb, and after we walked a little, we passed a bench in the shade where Sherry decided to wait for us. This was probably a good call. This walk was no joke, y’all.

We learned at Fushimi that maps at tourist locations were NOT to scale. This was the same. We passed a couple of maps that looked like we were close! But no.

Ally and I got ahead for a little while, and I worried that Mukta and Ileen had turned back, but then we looked down from one switchback and saw them coming.

It was hotttt. I was so hot and tired from walking uphill, that I didn’t take any pictures! Until we arrived.

MONKEY!!

There were wild snow monkeys, and they were all over.

There were also lots of signs warning you how to act and not act. Things like, don’t touch them. Don’t get too close. Normal, common sense things.

Then there were also things like – don’t look them in the eye.

Uhhh – yikes.

That was a little scary.

We went inside the little hut and bought some food for them!

This was so fun!

Then we went back out and walked around!

The view was amazing!

Monkeys everywhere!

A baby!

Ally and monkeys:

Ileen and monkeys:

After we felt rested and enjoyed the monkeys, we headed back down. Goodbye, monkeys!

We’re back!

Here we tried to get into a Tempura place that Tom recommended, but there was an hour long wait. So we found somewhere else!

Ally and Mukta taking food pictures. Like good humans.

You may notice Ileen is using one of my smuggled plastic forks from Tokyo Disney. She had slippery noodles! I didn’t blame her!

After we ate, we found dessert.

Then we went to the Bamboo Grove to walk around.

After we finished, we headed back to the train and back to Kyoto and the Hop On Hop Off bus. Our next stop was the Golden Pavilion.

We were in a bit of a time crunch here. If we missed the next bus, we would have way too long at this stop. So we walked fairly quickly. Of course we stopped to take pictures though!

It was just beautiful!

When we finished, and gathered everyone to speed walk back to the bus. We were cutting it close! It was time and we didn’t see it! Did we miss it? No! It was delayed! Phew!

I had time to go to a nearby shop and buy a coke! Woohoo!

We stopped at the Heian Jingu Shrine next!

We walked for a while after.

We tried to make it to Nanzen-Ji Temple before it closed. Made it!

This was all super pretty as well!

After we finished, we tried to squeeze in one more temple, but it was closed. Then we decided to walk to the Philosopher’s Path. And we walked. And walked. And walked. I couldn’t figure out why we hadn’t run into it yet. Then I realized we were one block over. Oops. Ha!

We walked over, but by then we were too tired and hungry to go far.

We ended up sitting on a bench and looking for somewhere to have dinner. Ha!

We decided to go back to Kyoto Station and find somewhere. There was a huge department store with several stories that advertised a restaurant up top. We decided to go up and check it out.

It was very cool, and I felt a little underdressed, but they fit us in! Ally and I had one table, and the other ladies sat at counter type seats near us. We had a beautiful view of the tower while we ate!

After we finished, we made our way back to the house and went to bed. Early morning tomorrow!

 

Tokyo or Bust!

Day 1 – On Our Way! To China? 
Day 2 – Hello, Japan! 
Day 3 – DisneySea 
Day 4 – Tokyo Disneyland 
Day 5 – Park Hopping 
Day 6 – Bullet Train to Kyoto
Day 7 – Massive Tour of Kyoto
Day 8 – Back to Tokyo 
Day 9 – Home Again!