Onwards to Monkey Mountain!

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