Monkeying Around in Arashiyama

 

January 29, 2017

I've lived in Kansai for nearly three years now and you would think that I would of seen everything on my "to-see" list but there are actually places I have yet to visit! Arashiyama's Monkey Park is one of them. I'm not so crazy about monkeys but an out of country friend of mine said that it was really cool and highly recommended it. So with Caoliang spending his last holidays with me in Kansai, we decided to hang out in Arashiyama one day and check out this park along with the bamboo forest.

We decided to head to Kyoto a little earlier than lunch just incase it was going to be a crowded day. It was a Sunday and usually every one goes out on Sundays so I was a little worried about the crowd. I once had tried to go to the park and the line to get in was very long and discouraging. Luckily for us, when we arrived about 10:30 am, the park had no line and Arashiyama wasn't so crowded.

Admission to Arashiyama's Monkey Park is 550 yen for adults and 250 yen for kids. I really didn't know how the park was going to be so everything was a surprise. After a few steps up to the ticket gates, you go on a small hike up the mountain and through the forest. The walk was nice because the cool weather but the steps up definitely made my body warm. I ended up taking off my jacket half way just to keep from sweating so much. The path way was all dirt and rocks. It was scheduled to rain that day, which was another reason why I wanted to get the day started earlier. Thankfully we did that because if we got caught in the rain on this mountain it would of been a really messy situation getting down.

Finally after the small hike, we came to a small playground and resting house which soon led to the monkey viewing platform. Most of the monkeys were found on the viewing platform but even before that, we saw a couple roaming around. The monkeys are not kept caged in. They are actually free to roam anywhere they want. On the viewing platform there is a caged room for actually humans to go into and feed the monkeys that roam around outside. After snapping a few photos outside, we went inside the caged room, bought a bag of peanuts for a couple hundred yen and got to hand feed the monkeys.

It was pretty cool getting to feel their little fingers grab peanuts off the palm of your hand. I broke my nuts into two so the small bag of peanuts lasted a bit longer. It was fun to watch the monkeys fighting and jump around so quickly.

Along with the free roaming monkeys and many photo opportunities, we also were lucky enough to be there during feeding time! It was funny because we were just sitting on a bench when we heard one of the staff members shout something in Japanese and all the monkeys shouted back. Caoliang and I were joking to each other saying, "He's probably shouting 'food time!' as the monkeys say 'ok!'" And even though we were joking, we were right!! Suddenly all the monkeys appeared on the viewing platform waiting around for the man with the bucket. As a commonly recognized tune came on the intercom, a staff member walked around spreading a dry food mix. It was pretty entertaining to see them scurrying around for food. This feeding time only happens three times a day so it was pretty neat to catch.

After taking more photos, we took the short walk downhill and out to see a bit more of Arashiyama before the rain would start. But before we were going to do anything, it was time for a coffee break! We originally wanted to go to Arabica Coffee but being that there is always a line and that both of us have had it before, we decided to try something different. So we stopped at a random coffee house to have a break and get a small snack.

Caoliang and I have both been to Arashiyama separately so there wasn't much we hadn't seen. And even though we had seem the Bamboo Grove before, we thought it would be nice to see together. Luckily, the pathway was not too over crowded with people. Sometimes it gets so crowded you're literally shuffling the whole way through. But I think because the cloudy skies, the day didn't bring many tourists which really worked out for us.

So as we got to the Bamboo Grove, we had fun snapping a few more photos and enjoying the serene air. Soon the skies were becoming a bit more grey and it was time to have a proper meal. Being that Arashiyama is super popular among tourists, each food place we passed was either full or more money than I cared to spend. Thankfully we found this small shop that had a simple menu and reasonable prices so we stopped in for some food. I ended up getting a karage set as Caoliang got curry udon.

We debated going into Kyoto city for more venturing around but the rain was forecasted to set in more as the day went on so we decided it would be better to go back to Osaka. Anyways, we were happy with the day's adventure to a new place and was glad to have some fun pictures to remember it by.

As always, thanks for reading!! Hope you guys have a great morning/day/night :)




xx
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