Went out of Kyoto today to the mountain village of Arashiyama. It was as touristy as Japan gets (not very), with a few souvenir stores and restaurants in the main street. Up and down the streets some of the fittest men we have seen on our trip pull chariots of tourists clad in semi traditional clothing with bike shorts.
The monkey park in the hillside forest was a great experience. The 'snow monkeys' were ok with us walking past them, perhaps because they knew that at the top of the hill we would feed them. We passed a whole family on a path- mum and dad were cleaning each other while the baby looked on.
Trav was the main attraction at the Zen temple. The locals had not seen size 15 shoes before, let alone size 15 feet in size 7 slippers. They took photos of both. The bamboo forest at the end of the garden was memorable for the sound of thousands of trees brushing each other in the wind.
Totally different way of thinking here: the train turnstiles remain open and only close if your ticket is invalid.
Japanese equivalent of a gondola ride/ 'Down in front!'/ Zen temple garden
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