Kyoto Day 2

The previous evening we agreed on the dress code for today.

Yes, it was time for the Uncle Bob’s t-shirts to make an appearance.

As this was Gary and Diane’s first tour with. Uncle Bob I thought it was appropiate and by the magic of Ebay found us all one.

So it was off to the railway station for the train to Arashiyama leaving from platform 33. As we were finding out, all Japanese stations are very big, most of the main stations having 30 to 50 platforms serving perhaps 5 or 6 main lines and a similar number of subway lines. A bit of concentration required at times to find our way around.

Whilst waiting for our train the “hello kitty” train pulled up on track 32.

Japan has quite a few themed trains like this one which is decorated internally with hello kitty furnishings and themed food in the buffet. We saw other themed trains at Mount Fuji, such as Thomas the tank and Anime themed ones.

Anyway, half an hour later we were at Arashiyama and after a quick look at Google maps we were soon at the famous “bamboo forest”

It was quite surreL walking through the 50 to 60 foot high bamboo Grove.

The other main attraction in Arashiyama is the Iwatayama monkey Park, just across the river.

We soon found the entrance to the monkey park. “Only 350m to the park” the sign announced. “Great, that’s not far,’ we agreed and off we set.

Little did we know that reality soon set in. Yes, maybe only 350m, but what the sign didn’t tell us is that it was up a nearly vertical path of steps to the top of a mountain overlooking the town below.

Up we started, up and up! After half an hour I paused for a rest on a bench

My lungs were bursting and my legs were crying out “no more!” And so here I remained while Gary and Diane ventured to the top.

Back in Arashiyama we stopped for a well deserved coffee and a doughnut at Tulleys coffee shop.

Another branch of Tulleys was next to our hotel and was where we had breakfast each morning.

The coffee shop is on a path of columns, each decorated with a different pattern of traditional kimono material

Plenty of women in traditional dress at the Kimono Forest

We were soon back on the train to Central Kyoto and after a refreshing beer in a bar at the base of the Kyoto Tower we caught the subway train for the 5 minute ride back to our hotel.