Kyoto - Day 2

So we were pretty tuckered out after all the walking the first day, but there was still so much to see! We decided to take the train since the places on our list were outside the downtown area, and it was really easy to figure out (thank you iPhone!). Here's the kicker though - rather than take the subway, we decided to walk to the downtown station, which was over 2 miles away! That plus the hiking and other walking we did probably added up to at least another 10 miles of walking throughout the day, LOL. We justified it by reminding ourselves that if we wanted to consume lots of calories, we had to burn a lot of calories. Plus we were truly able to appreciate all the different aspects of Kyoto because we were moving slow enough to observe them. :-)

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a local cafe called "Excelsior".

Interesting modern art on our walk to the train station.

The early morning streets of Kyoto

That's the Kyoto Tower Hotel in the distance

So many cool old buildings, right in the middle of this bustling city

We didn't go in, but this looked like an interesting shop!

I love these little alleys! They're so cute until you have to drive down one...

This is a hotel attached to the ginormous Kyoto Station (which is every other part of the building). We heard that the best restaurants are actually in the train stations - a bit different than the expectations of food at stations in the States!

So we took the train to an outlying part of Kyoto prefecture called Arashiyama. We didn't go for it this time, but those rickshaws sure were tempting! At this point, we didn't know how much walking we were going to be doing so maybe we would have reconsidered if we had known...

We walked through the picturesque town of Arashiyama and saw some beautiful sights

We picked up some food vendor snacks - octopus and edamame skewers, yum!

Here's the reason we came to this place: The MONKEY PARK!

We knew we were getting close when we started seeing these signs

Thus begins our hike (very steep and windy hike mind you) up the mountain to see the monkeys

These words of advice were posted all along the trail

A map of the hike - it's much steeper going up than coming down

Oh my gosh, I found one!

Doing what they do

The monkeys gathered around the "human cage" where we were allowed to buy food and feed them through the grate

This little guy found a safe zone where he could eat in peace

Yeah, so me being me, I totally forgot the whole "Don't look at the monkeys in the eye" warning. Joel snapped this picture right before a park ranger ran over and scared the monkey away. He was literally about the pounce on me. In the picture you can already see his body language as he was beginning to lunge. All the while I just smile and get sucked into his demon eyes... (FYI, they ALL had demon eyes! Freaky!)

The view of Kyoto from the top

Too funny

The monkeys were why we made the hike, but the view was stunning.

Boys will be boys, that's all I'm gonna say :-p

Joel has good body language and an avoidance of eye contact. Smart.

Here we are, inside the human cage. Interesting fact: The monkeys' faces and bums are bright red because their blood vessels are so close to the surface of their skin. Huh.

These guys would seriously wiggle their hands at us and demand food

This big fat one scared a couple away just by climbing up the grate. Apparently he's the Don Corleone of the bunch.

It's misleading in the picture, but the little guy was totally chasing the big one. In fact the big one was so frightened, he ran right up to Joel, sat down in front of him and took a fear piss right there!

Cute Japanese family!

By this point, I had learned my lesson the hard way. When feeding the monkeys, do not set your food bag down any where near them! The very first one I tried to feed snaked his gigantic-ly long arm through the grate and snatched my entire bag of bananas. He yanked that thing so fast through the grate and left us to just watch as he feasted on it for the next 5 minutes. Waste of 100 yen, LOL.

This is mama monkey carrying her baby, can you see it?

Cool dragon fountain. Since it's the year of the dragon, Joel and I are looking for an authentic sculpture or something to display in the house. So far, not too much luck though. They're either too expensive, too scary, too cartoonish, or just plain ugly. Wish I could've taken this fountain though... it's super cool.

Boat taxis... maybe next time.

Such a beautiful train station in Arashiyama. Whoever comes to visit will be coming back here with us!

While waiting on the train platform, this parade of kids walked by. They were chanting who knows what, but it sounded cool.

We started waving to them and they got a big kick out of it and started screaming "Hello!" at us!

We walked back to our places on the platform then two little old ladies waved us back down to the end because the girls were coming next and I guess they wanted us to wave to them too! We were all smiling and waving as the kids walked by. It was fun. :)

We got front row standing space on the train back to the downtown station.

This is the inside of Kyoto Station, just a tiny portion of it! This is where the Shin, the JR, the subway, the buses, etc, ALL of it come together so it's kind of a mad house. Thankfully their signs were in English as well.

Joel and I took another train in the opposite direction to Nara, about a 50 minute ride away from Kyoto. We were HUNGRY so we found a cool gyoza restaurant to grab a bite to eat.

This is an omelet in a thick pork broth.

Gyoza is SO yummy! I actually just learned how to make it at a cooking class this weekend!

Yakisoba is my new favorite thing. It's soba noodles with cabbage, carrots, pork, this one had mushrooms (ick!) and a really tasty, light sauce.

Joel and I stopped at a neat recycle mart (aka. thrift store) where they had a deer wearing a warrior hat. I thought it was funny. :-p

This machine is making squid jerky

It was actually at least a mile, probably two to get to the Todaiji Temple in Nara.

Like Miyajima, only on a much larger scale, there was a park infiltrated with tame deer. They are sacred and are left alone, except for the one time a year when their antlers get trimmed to avoid hurting us humans.

LOVE this, ha ha

This deer acted almost dead. Apparently he'd already eaten his fill of "deer crackers" and was refusing even a little taste! His sleepy posture reminds of Bruce though... isn't that funny?!  I could swear the Bruce makes that same face!

I made a friend! When I stopped feeding him, he wiped his head on my hip, over and over. Joel got it on film. It was probably his way of being forceful and butting me into action, but I thought it was cute.

Too bad they weren't soft and fluffy. They're actually quite dirty.

This one's antlers look like they've been dulled.

So.... Todaiji Temple. It's the largest wooden structure in the world and houses the largest bronze Buddha in the world. This is the old wooden Torii Gate that marks the entrance. 

It's so neat looking!

There were these massive statues inside the Torii Gate. They were really dusty - you can see it in the picture.

We were chosen again to help some students practice their English.

It's getting bigger....

There it is! Todaiji Temple!

Look how small the people are in comparison to this thing!

Buddha just doesn't look impressive in any of the pictures but if you see it in person, your socks will be knocked off!

You can kinda see how small Joel looks in comparison to Buddha.

There were gold statues next to Buddha. I actually thought they were cooler.

We were here!

This was the original layout of the property. Sadly not all the buildings have made it.

Interesting...

We passed a shop where these guys were putting on a show pounding mochi (glutinous rice pounded into a paste and used in baking). They were loud but good at their job!

Joel getting a little bit of help from a friendly Japanese woman (the ticket machine wouldn't take his yen!)

Stopped at Irish Pub number two on the walk back to our hotel from the station.

HAD to get the fish and chips to compare. This plate was WAY better than the one the night before!

This is the whole pub. It was small, but homey.

Oh, and this was our hotel. We liked it a lot.

I will have to write a separate blog to document the AMAZING dinner we had on this evening! This post is just too darn long and detailed already, so we will get to it eventually.... see how amazing Kyoto and the surrounding areas are?? :)