Arashiyama (嵐山) and the Golden Pavilion

The next day was spent at Kyoto, where I have been before (remember the Geisha post?)... but this time, we spent most of our time in a nearby city called Arashiyama. Arashiyama is known for a few things:

1. Sagano Bamboo Forest
2. Togetsukyo bridge
3. Iwatayama Monkey Park

It's your lucky day because we saw ALL of those things! Strap in, cuz you're about to get blown away (figuratively... hopefully not literally).

Our first stop was the bamboo forest, which is basically self-descriptive (a forest... of... bamboo). It's also known for the sound it makes as the wind blows through the bamboo which was voted as one of the must-be-preserved sounds of Japan. Shockingly, jet noise was not on the list -- I know, right?! Below are a few photos to be enjoyed with the imagined sound of bamboo swaying gently in the breeze.

After that, we walked to the "romantic" Togetsukyo bridge. I guess you can define romantic how you will, but apparently it's known as a good viewing spot for the autumn trees and the cherry blossoms.

We then went to to the monkey park... it was an insane hike up Mt Arashiyama to feed some wild Japanese macaque monkeys. The path was filled with little games about monkey trivia, along with signs repeatedly warning us not to incur the wrath of these little buggers. 

Monkeys taking over the viewing station, overlooking Kyoto. Below are the photos of each of us feeding them with little bits of apple we bought for 100 yen.

In this photo, my dad is inciting a fight among the two... you can see how the one of the left is biting the head of the one on the right.

Our journey complete there, we headed off to see the Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion). The building consists of three stories, with the upper two stories covered by gold foil on lacquer. Today it contains Buddhist relics. And that's all I have to say about that:

You can slightly see the crane in front of it... below is a better shot.























Exhausted, dirty, and slightly starving, my family and I made the trek back to Atsugi to regain our strength and prepare for the aviation museum and Mt Fuji.