Day 5 - Kyoto

We have run hard every day of this trip and everyone was feeling a little tired, especially since we had some late nights arriving at our destinations. We originally planned to get up early and visit a very popular shrine in Kyoto, but we changed plans and switched our Thursday and Friday activities. That way we were not in much of a hurry this morning. We were, however, now planning some activities that were not particularly wheelchair friendly so my grandpa decided he would spend the morning at the hotel.

Grandpa did come down to eat breakfast with us. We wanted something quick and close. Right near our hotel is a little coffee shop that sold donuts and pancakes. The pancakes were surprisingly good. We all ate breakfast with my grandpa before bidding him adieu.

We headed to the train station and I was still a little hungry after breakfast. Our walk to the train station is through the Teramachi shopping center, which is a huge complex of shops. We passed a place that was selling donuts and decided to make a quick stop. We were glad we did - the donuts were great, particularly a strawberry donut they made that we all loved. We took a couple of trains out to the edge of Kyoto.

Our first stop was the bamboo forest. It was a relatively short walk from the train station. We walked through the forest and our first impression was a little bit disappointing. The bamboo forest looked nice but was not as impressive as we expected. As we went deeper we found the more impressive area. Alison had picked out a temple to visit in the bamboo forest and as we approached the temple we saw an area that was full of thick bamboo.

We decided we would visit the Tenryuji Temple first before coming back to the bamboo forest. It was a beautiful temple with grounds nestled among the hilly countryside. In this area, Zen Buddhism seems to be popular. Many of the temples are Zen Buddhist temples. With the temples, the gardens tend to be more important and more immaculate than the buildings. This temple fell into that category.

After exploring the Tenryuji Temple we made our way back into the bamboo forest. This area was much more interesting and met my expectations. After we walked through the forest we headed back toward the train station to find one of the activities I was very excited about - Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama.

My grandpa remembered this soda from his mission. He was on the lookout for it. When we found it in a vending machine we had to buy one for my grandpa and one for us to try. 

Ardis asked these ladies if they would take a picture with us. 

We went back and forth on whether or not to include this activity on our itinerary because we knew my grandpa probably would not be able to participate and it could be challenging for my grandma. To get to the monkey park you have to hike for ~20-30 minutes. It is a little over a mile. We read the hike was mild, but after doing it today would say it is more moderate. While the trail is paved there is a decent amount of elevation gain. My grandma was a trooper. We had to stop a few times along the way, but we all made it up the mountain. We are so glad we did. This was a phenomenal experience.

The park is inhabited by a troop of over 170 Japanese macaque monkeys. They are wild, although you can buy some food (within the confines of a building) to feed them. We visited during the season when they have babies so there were lots of mother monkeys carrying around little baby monkeys. The babies were adorable. The monkeys do not like being touched, stared at, or having cameras pointed at them (we quickly realized this mostly applied to phones). Other than that we could walk and stand right near them. We spent a good hour feeding them and watching them do their thing. It was so much fun. Really a highlight of the trip.

After the park, we hiked back down and made our way back to the hotel. We grabbed a quick lunch at 7-eleven (it actually has really good food in Japan). Plus we needed something we could grab and go. We got back to the hotel a little after 2pm and had 3 temples we wanted to visit before they closed at 5pm. The plan was to pick up my grandpa, but he was comfortably reading and did not feel like getting out of the hotel so we left my grandma with him and caught a cab to the first temple.

How many school kids can you fit on a bench on the train? We saw groups of school kids like this all over Japan. 

One of the challenges with Kyoto is getting around. There really is not great public transportation here. We ended up taking some fairly expensive cab rides. The first temple we visited was the Kinkaku-ji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. It is another Zen Buddhist temple and is absolutely stunning. It is one of the most popular buildings in Japan. We saw this firsthand as the crowds were huge. Despite the large number of people, we were able to see the building and take time to enjoy the stunning building and surroundings.

The next temple we visited was the Ryoanji Temple. This is a Zen Buddhist temple as well. It is famous for its rock garden. It is built on a rather large campus. We explored a little bit of the campus and made our way into the main temple to see the rock garden. We contemplated trying to visit the final temple on our itinerary for the day, but we realized we would not likely make it in time so instead, we extended our visit to the Ryoanji temple.

When we were done we caught another cab back to our hotel. This time the plan was to find a place to get dinner with my grandparents. My grandma has been wanting to get some good tempura for a few days now so Alison found a place close to our hotel. We made our way over to the restaurant, but as soon as my grandpa saw the limited menu options (mostly tempura shrimp, squid, and veggies) and the small seating area he decided he was out. He went to 7-eleven to find an egg sandwich while the rest of us were seated. Ardis was not wild about tempura, but she and Greg visited with us while my grandma, Alison, and I enjoyed our meals.

After dinner, we split up. Ardis and Greg took my grandparents to find some more food (my grandpa really wanted to find that donut shop we visited earlier) and Alison and I headed to Gion, Kyoto's geisha District. This is a cool area with lots of shopping and other nightlife. We did see one geisha on our stroll as well. It was a very pleasant evening. We stopped on our way back to the hotel and bought a crepe to share. We got back to our hotel and packed a few things so that we would be ready for an adventure first thing tomorrow morning.