Japan 2019: My Favourite Area in Japan - Kyoto! (Arashiyama, Monkey Park & Fushimi Inari)
DAY 5
Finally, the chance to explore and soak up Kyoto! I love the vibe of Kyoto so much. It’s so beautiful and peaceful - it kind of gives you that feeling of reminiscing about the good times you’ve had or like watching a good heartfelt Studio Ghibli movie. I can’t get enough of this area.
This is my second time going to all three of these places, so I won’t go to in depth with them. If you want to learn more, you can check out my previous post on these here.
ARASHIYAMA BAMBOO FOREST
The bamboo forest is a really great site to see. There is tons of bamboo growing in this area and it makes for great photos! As with all major ‘attractions’ in Japan, you need to go early or else it will get extremely crowded later on. However, if you walk a little further into the path, there is usually less people.
Unfortunately, besides the bamboo, there isn’t much else to do in this area… I will leave you with some photos I took of the area though
If you travel just a bit further in, you’ll see this really peaceful area. Such great scenery. Also, if you look to the left (of this picture or further behind if you are there in person) you’ll see this small shrine in the back.
There are also steps leading up the hill/mountain, I walked all the way up and walked a bit back in 2018 but I never really knew what the area was or if there was anything to see… so I walked back down without exploring. Plus, it seemed out of the way and there wasn’t anyone really there, so I walked back in case anything were to happen. But if you know the area I’m talking about and you know what it is/what’s there, let me know!
We headed to the forest pretty early in the morning just because we wanted to beat the crowds but after we were done exploring a little and taking a few photos, we went back to the capsule hotel for breakfast - First Cabin provided complimentary breakfast for every night you stayed - which was great!
It was a simple bowl of hot (plain) congee with a few different side dishes: a bunch of picked veggies, a piece of fish, tofu of some sorts, and a soft boiled egg in a light savory broth. Also, there was a nice hot cup of green tea. Of course this isn’t top tier food or anything but it was nice to start the day with something hearty and clean, flavour-wise.
This area of Kyoto is just so beautiful. Unfortunately photos can’t really give its full beauty - sounds a bit strange but it’s true! If you get the chance, I highly recommend you visit Kyoto because everything about it is amazing. I swear you’ll love it as much as I do!
ARASHIYAMA MONKEY PARK
The park is a 15-20 minute hike up the mountain side, there aren’t really steps, so make sure you have stable and comfortable shoes (I’ve seen people wear heels and I have no idea why they would do that to themselves…). The entrance see is about $6 and once you get to the top, you’ll start seeing monkeys around! You’ll also see this great view of Kyoto.
It’s not a big problem but I will warn you that these are wild monkeys - there are also warnings on the ticket and around the area - and you should’t approach the monkeys and don’t stare directly at them. If they attack you, it can’t be helped. Though I’ve been there twice now and I’ve never seen be aggressive towards a human.
There is also an option to feed the monkeys peanuts, apples or bananas for 100 YEN. Just step inside the little cage/hut and there will be a counter where someone is selling them. I found this really addicting - feeding the monkeys and seeing them take the food and eat it. Real cute. Disclaimer though: you are in the cage feeding the monkeys on the outside, the monkeys are not caged.
FUSHIMI INARI
Next stop was the famous Fushimi Inari with the thousands of tori gates. This place is way more crowded than the bamboo forest and monkey park combined. Probably because it’s much more spacious too but you have to come early if you want really good photos or you have to hike further up.
This year, since we (my sister and I) brought our mom along, we decided not to hike all the way up and there wasn’t much up there to see anyway. I did hike all the way up back in 2018 though… my feet were already tired from walking so much and I swear my ankles were swollen, so it took me just over 2h to hike up and back down.
There is a viewpoint about a third of the way to the top, there is usually a lot of people here as well. Honestly, the view isn’t that great when compared to the one on top of Monkey Park but it was still nice to see! There are no more viewpoints like this further up in the hike. At the very top, you’ll just see a small shrine area and some small things around the area, again not much but nice to see at least once.
Once you head back down, if you walk though the entrance again but this time go to the left, you’ll see a small street with tons of food vendors lining the streets and if you walk even further, there’ll be a few restaurants.
There are some great options for street food here like: takoyaki, daifuku, gyoza, a bunch of different skewer foods and much more. The food is sort of expensive here, the beef skewer with onions I bought was like $5 but it was tasty. Unfortunately, I forgot to take more photos of street food. We also stopped by a restaurant because we were kind of hungry by the time we finished hiking. I would like to say, steer away from restaurants in this area (disclaimer: this is only MY experience in ONE restaurant in this area) because it’s not worth it. I feel like the food wasn’t that great and it was overpriced for what you get. Also, a lot of restaurants will require you to buy one dish per person.
Overall, seeing the thousands of tori gates at Fushimi is amazing, there are so many of them! There are a lot of great street food options near the entrance but eat at a sit down restaurant elsewhere. Seeing the gates = 10/10 recommend but eating in the area? Probably not.
I feel like Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and Fushimi Inari are must see destinations in Kyoto. I wouldn’t really call them tourist traps because you don’t actually need to spend money to get into these places. They’re really well known in the area and if you speak to anyone who is interested in Japan or who has been, they’ll definitely know these locations!
There is a lot more to see and do in the area that I haven’t gotten to yet, so stay tuned for my next post - until then, thanks for scrolling along
-Thomas