Bamboo, monkeys, torii, and a desperate plea (10/5 - Dana)

I had a mostly solo day today.  I woke up nice and early yesterday so I thought I would try to get out early again and go see the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove before it got too busy.  It was beautiful, but even at 8am I found myself thinking “I bet if I just follow this huge tour group, they’ll lead me to where I want to go.”

After wandering through the bamboo grove I found a shrine — not unusual in itself because Kyoto is full of shrines and temples, but this one was very specific.  I gathered from the Google translation of the sign that this one was for… hairdressers? 

Sure enough, the amulets being sold were all combs and scissors and there were some thematic prayers on the ema hanging in the shrine.

Then I sat down on a bench outside the shrine to take a little rest, and looked at my phone.

There was some disturbing news from home in the group chat for the parents in my daughter’s grade: lice are going around school.  I immediately started feeling itchy from 6,000 miles away.  Everyone in the chat was freaking out.

Then I realized that I was in the place where you pray for things related to hair.

The shrine wasn’t open yet so I did a few more laps of the bamboo grove and came back at 9.

I posted this picture to the group chat with the comment “I’ve done my part.”

Then I wandered back through the bamboo grove, through a park with warning signs about staying away from wild monkeys, along a river and over a bridge to the Arashiyama Monkey Park.  After a 15 minute uphill hike, I found the monkeys!

I happened to be there at feeding time.

There were also nice views of Kyoto.

I posted this picture to the group chat and added “Hopefully we will not all be doing this soon.”

After the monkey park I wandered through a VERY touristy area back to the train and headed to Fushimi Inari-Taisha to walk up, around and down a mountain.  I’m sure Colin has amazing photos, so I won’t bother sharing mine.  Colin doesn't have this picture though!

Finished off the day with a Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo — we’ll see if I can stand up when we get there.    Colin’s iPhone thinks that the hike up and down the mountain is equivalent to 50 flights of stairs.