Much like the first night, our week in Kyoto ran into a few
more snags along the way. We were in the city during monsoon season and out of
the seven days we stayed in Kyoto, three were drowned in a torrential downpour.
Despite our trials and tribulations, it was tough to complain about the weather
when we were staying at the top-ranked youth hostel in the world, the Utano
Youth Hostel. At least, our sensei had informed us that it was the best, and
after staying there I have no reason to doubt that ranking.
It was less of a hostel and more of a hotel, complete with a
free breakfast buffet, and unlike the less-than-savory quality food you usually
get at cheap hotels, this breakfast was actually delicious. The only
hostel-esque quality, at least in my opinion, was that the rooms were small.
But for students traveling light, fitting four people in this room was still
quite comfortable.
Perhaps the best features of Utano, besides the free Wi-Fi,
were the baths. It was a traditional open air bath; group bathing being
commonplace in Japan. What made it so great was that you had the option to open
a large bay window that overlooked the mountains behind the hostel and enjoy
the air. Luckily we were staying in Kyoto during the summer, so the summer
breeze as it rustled the trees and rolled in through the window, coupled with a
warm bath, created a sensation I would probably closely associate with heaven.
A bright spot, in my opinion the brightest spot, of our trip
to Kyoto was the day a group of us hiked to the top of Arashiyama, written
using the kanji for storm and mountain. However, I will always affectionately
call it “Monkey Mountain.” The reason for this is at the mountain’s lower peak,
not only is there a fantastic view of nearly the whole of Kyoto, but it is also
home to the Iwatayama Monkey Park.
This park is home to over 170 Japanese macaque monkeys, or saru. These monkeys are free to roam
the mountain and have become somewhat accustomed to the presence of people. For
a small fee, you can buy some food from the park shop and then feed the monkeys
through the fencing that lined the shop. We were strictly instructed not to
feed them outside the shop or we could agitate the group of them.
There were actually quite a few rules we had to follow. We
could not make eye contact with the monkeys as they took it as a sign of
aggression. We were also told not to cross their paths or get too close to the monkeys,
as that was also a sign of aggression. Luckily, the monkeys were comfortable
with pictures so we were able to interact somewhat. I had the misfortune of
stumbling across a monkey I hadn’t noticed, inadvertently crossing his path and
even worse, making eye contact. Sure enough he reared up on all fours, baring
his fangs and hissing at me. I immediately backed off and made my way back to
the rest of the group.
We had discovered that just past the monkey park, there was
also a small playground. Suddenly we were all 10 years old again, swinging from
monkey bars and riding a teeter-totter. The best attraction was a 30 ft. zip
line, which we spent the better part of a half hour riding back and forth. When
we’d had our fill of playing and monkeys we descended the mountain and of
course, hit up the gift shop for some monkey stuff. At the base of the mountain
there was also the scenic fork of the Oui River, which offered river boat rides
that were unfortunately far out of our price range.
By this time the day was late, so we headed back to our
hostel to enjoy that bath and relax in our rooms. We would only have a few more
days in Kyoto before we would be heading to our final destination, Iida, a city
in the Nagano prefecture.
Useful phrase in this week’s post:
Saru – さる – 猿 (commonly written
using kana alone)
Meaning: monkey
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