Our last day in Kyoto definitely came around too fast. We spent it exploring one of the most famous sights of Kyoto, the one I was really looking forward to, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in 35° heat. It is without a doubt impressively beautiful but also crowded during the day. If you want a peaceful experience, be early. It is a nice and quick getaway from the city, and you can cool down by the Ōi River or do a river cruise. Hop on a train and you’re here in 20 minutes or so from Kyoto Station. In our case, the river was still very high (hence no river cruises) and rain damage was still very visible, but cool-down effects were still amazing. There is no explaining Japanese heat, you just have to experience it to understand what I mean.
When the heat killed us enough, we walked across Togetsku-Kyo bridge and to the Iwatayama Monkey Park, where we spotted a few really cute baby monkeys, born only a few months ago. What made us laugh the most though, was the feeding cage – only this time the humans were “caged” – check the gallery. Otherwise, the park is a cool experience if you like animals, especially if you visit with kids. Note that you have to walk 20 minutes uphill to reach it and that monkeys really are free to walk around. 🙂 And some of them can be quite naughty.
In the evening we had a (double) date night in Gion with Lučka and Mark. It was a nice opportunity to look pretty (-er) or as I like to call it – feel like a human again after backpacking for a while. We went to see a show in Gion Corner, where in an hour you get a quick insight into a few traditional Japanese arts and crafts. It is a good option if you don’t have the attention span and money for something longer and more expensive – like meeting a Geisha or a proper tea ceremony, which can get really expensive.
Here, you can see a quick tea ceremony (chado), listen to Japanese harp (koto), see the art of flower arrangements (kado), enjoy some court music (gagaku), laugh at an ancient comic play (kyogen), be enchanted by Kyoto style maiko dancing (kyomai) and surprised by puppet play (bunraku). The theatre combined it in a cool and “compact” show, which last an hour and is meant to be a quick peek into Japanese culture. It is also a good way to determine on which one if any, you want to spend your money on. We couldn’t agree which one was the best between us four. 🙂
On the way home, we managed to get ourselves into the middle of a road-closing street festival, part of Gion Matsuri, that is on most of July and enjoy an adrenaline-filled bus ride back to Kyoto Station, as the bus was a bit off-schedule (which almost never happens here, of course).
We ended the night with romantic Mc’Donald’s tasting, drinking, blog arranging, packing and saying goodbye to Mark and Lučka before our trip to Osaka the next day.
Kyoto was rainy and seriously hot, but still lovely to us and there is no doubt we will be back for more. In the morning we were ready and on our way to Osaka without a plan and without expectations this time. 🙂