After taking it easy the day before we were all set to go hard again. We set out early to beat the crowds at one of Kyoto’s iconic sights, Kinkaku-ji Temple, or Golden Pavilion. This Buddhist temple is popular for its gold plating and reflection in ‘mirror pond’ and the gorgeous surrounding landscaping. Despite arriving early we still found ourselves being herded along the main path by the many tourists once the front gates opened. It is a testament to the beauty of this temple and its environment, since I was still able to absorb some of its tranquil atmosphere amidst the selfie sticks.
We then hopped onto a bus to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, a thick forest of bamboo stalks in every shade of green along a winding path. The density of bamboo growth helped dampen the sounds within, and the rays of green in all directions was certainly settling to the mind. It was also a good place for Jules to get some little kid energy out.
Shrines and bamboo forests, how about the fun stuff for kids? We told Jules that the next spot involved animals, and he came up with some crazy scenarios…one involving him swimming with shark dogs, hmmm…
After a 20 minute uphill hike, we were greeted by wild Japanese macaque monkeys, or snow monkeys, at the Iwatayama Monkey Park. Jules was a little freaked out, since signs clearly stated not to stare into the monkeys’ eyes, crouch down or make any sudden movements. I was tickled by the sight of people inside the ‘feeding shed,’ enclosed in wire mesh while the monkeys ran wild outside. We paid for bags of bananas, apples and peanuts and went inside the cage to feed monkeys. We were surprised by how gentle the monkeys were, gingerly taking the food out of our outstretched palms. Not a second later, though, we were quickly reminded that these animals are still animals after all. Apparently, Jules’ hand wasn’t stretched out far enough for one of the monkeys to grab its peanut, so the monkey grabbed his finger and pulled him towards itself. I’ve never seen Jules move so fast as he quickly yanked his hand back. The monkey screeched and looked mighty angry, hoo boy!
After our morning excitement, we headed downhill to our lunch reservation at Arashiyama Yoshimura, a soba restaurant located along the Katsuragawa River. We felt like royalty as we cruised in past the crowds of people waiting, since I had booked a reservation through an on-line Japanese concierge a month prior. Guide books and travel blogs had warned us about the difficulty of booking Japanese restaurants without knowledge of the language, so this virtual Japanese concierge came in really handy. To my sheer delight, we were even seated at one of the nine coveted window seats overlooking the river! We were all in seventh heaven slurping down our soba noodles while being soothed by the rush of the river and sight of cherry blossoms outside.
With more varieties of cherry blossoms to experience, we visited the Heian Shrine for its famous gardens taking over 20 years to complete and boasting at least 20 varieties of cherry blossoms, including the shidarezakura or weeping cherry tree. Jules headed for the temizuya, or purification fountain, to purify his hands and mouth before entering the grounds of the shrine. Once inside, we found a peaceful oasis with unexpected moments of silent beauty every way we turned.
At this point, Jules said to me, “Mommy, you know that kids my age aren’t really interested in cherry blossoms, right?” The kid had a point, which is why his mommy planned the next stop in our day, the turtle stepping stones in Kamo-gawa. The Kamo river runs north-south through the center of Kyoto, and there are stepping stones, some shaped like turtles, that run across the width of it.
Thankfully, this part of the river is shallow as the current goes by quickly. Jules raced down the slope leading to the water as soon as he spotted the stones. We all had a great time jumping from stone to stone, back and forth a few times. Jules finally conceded to stopping once we pointed out that the sun was going down, and he saw a little girl fall into the water. Oops.
Ready for dinner, we took our chances at getting Jules into Omuraya, a local izakaya or Japanese pub. Since izakaya are traditionally boozy affairs meant for the after work crowd some of them either don’t allow kids or really frown upon kids being there. No problem at Omuraya, though. However, I did feel nervous once we were given a menu that had about 70 items on it, all in Japanese. Gulp. Fortunately, we were able to get an English menu, albeit heavily annotated compared to our previous Japanese one. We enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and rustic mama’s home cooking with our cold Japanese beer after a 27 hour day.
