We had wanted to visit the Arashiyama section of Kyoto. It is a beautiful area outside the city nestled in mountains, rivers and forests. We decided to meet at the train station closest to Arashiyama. Our guide was Riana Sahara, a 19 year old student and when we arrived, she told us that until this time, she was in training and always had to be accompanied by a more experienced mentor; this was her first time guiding all alone and that she hoped that we would be satisfied.
Like the guides before her, she was personable, knowledgeable and very pleasant.
One of the activities to do in this region is to ride a heritage old style train through the mountains alongside a rushing river. Seats are reserved by number and you can choose to sit in the closed car or in the open air car.
She reserved the closed car for one way and open for the return trip. It was a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was not yet in the teens, so the return ride was quite cool especially when going thru the numerous mountain tunnels on the journey.
The scenery was nice, but nothing spectacular, although we could imagine that taking the train in the fall with the changing colour of the foliage might be spectacular.
After we returned, we walked for a bit through the town which was a couple of streets lined with eating places and souvenir shoppes. Because we started relatively early in the day, there were sparse crowds when we arrived but now many more were arriving to take advantage of the sunny day and the fresh outdoor air. We walked alongside the river for a bit enjoying the beautiful scenery.
We were headed to the monkey park, an area of Arashiyama accessible by climbing a steep, gravel paved hill with a number of switchbacks to make the climb a little easier.
We had been to the Park Hakofim (Hebrew for Monkey Park) in Israel where monkeys roam freely and you walk among them but always separated by a fence. As we were approaching the top, we noticed a number of monkeys in the surrounding forest, roaming freely. But when we reached the top, we were on a flattened area, and there were many monkeys all around us.
They are used to visitors and do not bother you, tho the males are bothered by direct eye contact and there are signs warning you of this. There are park rangers all around to ensure that everyone is safe from any potential "monkey business" (sorry, could not resist)!
There was a very beautiful view over Kyoto from the summit, but the real attraction here was the roughly 200 macaque monkeys. You could literally get up close and personal with them. We spent some time watching the monkeys and then headed back down.
We found a very nice spot along the river and ate our lunch with Riana who also brought her lunch. She was quite interested in our religion and asked us many questions about our observances. We were the first Jews she had ever met.
We then walked to the bamboo forest, another feature attraction in the area.
This is an enormous grove of very tall and straight bamboo trees. You walk on the path through them and you definitely feel very small. It is very photographed site that is featured in many travel magazines that highlight Kyoto.
By now it was mid afternoon and we boarded the train back to Kyoto station where we said our goodbyes to Riana. Before we left, she told us how memorable this day would be for her as we were the first tourists that she had guided as a graduate guide and she gave us a very beautiful thank you card that she had designed. It was really quite touching.
We cannot say enough about these free guide services. They are a very good resource when visiting Japan.
We spent some time walking through the shopping areas of Kyoto and then headed back to our apartment to pack up for our trip the next day to Kobe where we would spend our second Shabbat.
More to come...
All the best
Fran and David
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