We woke up somewhat late today, making it difficult to decide what to eat because we had a whole slew of things we wanted to do, so sitting in a restaurant that had table service was not in favor. We opted for McDonalds (once per country) and I got a tonkatsu burger, while Aaron got an Ebi burger. For those who don't know, Tonkatsu is fried pork chop, and ebi is shrimp. I really liked mine which came with a BBQ type sauce. Aaron thought his was only ok. We both opted for a side of corn rather than the typical fries.
We took a bus half an hour to Arashiyama, which is at the base of the nearby mountains. According to our tour book, it's the second most visited area in Kyoto. We were there for 2 things; Monkey Park and the bamboo forest.
Monkey park is literally a small mountain covered in monkeys. Not pictures, but real, live monkeys! The admission was super cheap (less than $5USD per person) and took us about 15 minutes to walk up the rocky terrain. There were signs everywhere that stated the 3 rules of Monkey Park.
1. Don't look monkey in the eye. (I kept laughing at this translation as it sounds like someone's name is Monkey.)
2. Don't feed monkey.
3. Don't touch monkey.
Pretty simple right?
When we got to the top, it was very crowded with other tourists. There was a place where you could pay 100 yen to feed the monkeys through a gate, but we get to do that every year at the Puerta Vallarta Zoo so we skipped it. Monkeys were everywhere. Climbing on motorcycles and rooftops, jumping into a pond, even fighting. They were free to roam where they wanted to go. After 10 minutes, we decided we'd had enough. Im not even that much of a monkey fan, but it was something cool to see. You would never see animals like this in America as someone would ruin it for everyone with a lawsuit.
The monkeys for sure had an amazing view of Kyoto. I bet they don't even appreciate it.
For snack, we popped into a 7/11 and I bought a snack in the ice cream section called Coolish. Maybe that means that the person wielding the package is coolish as well.....It was soft serve. I was a little underwhelmed.
On the way to the bamboo forest, we stopped into a temple (HUGE) called Tenryu-ji, which is mostly known for its Zen garden which was designed in the 14th century. It was peaceful but full of hills so rather than focusing on the Zen in my body was listening to my heart beat pick up and my breath increase.
The bamboo forest was by far the coolest thing in this area. The stalks were so tall. It was super crowded with tourists. Even some Japanese people wearing Yukatas and the wooden sandals. Even some of the men. We got one instant where no one appeared behind us so we got a shot.
On the way back to downtown, Aaron bought the drink we've been fretting over....what the hell IS salt and fruit?! Happily, it's only litchi drink. Phew. That could have been so much worse!
With 2 hours left in our day before things closed, we paid a visit to the Manga Museum. We kept mentioning how much my little sister would LOVE to visit.
This is one of the walls of Manga. And that's what they call it; Wall of Manga. Though, there are about 20 of these stretches of books. Aaron picked up a random book called "Cooking Papa" and actually liked it. (He couldn't read it, but the pictures and story line were interesting to him) He's going to download it.
There was an interesting exhibit throughout the museum of a single character designed by different Manga artists. Here are 8 examples of the same character as drawn by 8 different artists. There were literally hundreds of these wall coverings.
There was also an exhibit on Manga dealing with WWII. Japan has been using Manga for over a century, so they are more into cartoons, fantasy, etc. The drawings in that wing were extremely sad.
We headed back to Kyoto Station to buy tickets to leave. We've been noticing these weird triangle shaped dessert things at all the train stations so I decided to buy some. They were a mochi but in a different shape, so I've been calling them mochi tacos. This was peach flavor. I also sampled green tea (easiest green tea thing I've ever tasted), strawberry, and cinnamon.
For dinner, we decided it was time to try a tempura place, but not the expensive route. We went to a shopping mall and searched for a place that would work. We picked one where you could watch the cook dipping and frying the food. While not super interesting (it's just frying food after all), it was so cheap and tasted pretty good. This was before I got any of my meat!
And no trip to the shopping mall would be complete without a session in the massage chairs. These were the most intense chairs! After a full day of walking on our feet, these things compressed and pushed our toes and ankles. It felt amazing.
I ended the night with this weird looking cup thing from a freezer. It was bubble gum tasting. It was not my favorite. But I was happy to try something. I'm much more adventurous with desserts.
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