20/12/2014

Kyoto - Day 3

The rainy weather that had been forecast showed up again on day three. Although it still wasn't really that bad. Certainly the worst weather we had while we were there but it didn't really slow us down much.





There were a couple of heavy downpours on our way up the mountain to visit the monkeys but also conveniently placed huts to shelter in until the worst had passed. By the time we had reached the top it had stopped raining and we were able to wander about and watch the monkeys eating. It was kind of of surreal, they really don't care about humans unless you make prolonged eye contact. I did that by mistake after taking the camera away from my face on a couple of occasions, but doing a kind of long slow blink made them calm down right away as they realised I wasn't threatening them. Interestingly, that is also "cat speak" for showing trust.


You can feed the monkeys by hand providing you're inside the cage-like hut. I quite liked seeing humans being the ones behind bars instead of the animals.











Mia loves lychees and I had already told her about all the lychee flavoured things I'd seen in the summer, we found a drink in a combini (that's the Japanese pronunciation for convenience store).



Finally heading back to Tokyo. We managed to cram a lot into three days. It's possible to take slower trains or even much cheaper overnight busses between Tokyo and Kyoto, but for a first time visit and when you're trying to fit a lot into the trip, the Shinkansen is the way to go.

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