March 8 - I Went To The Animal Fair

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March 8, 2019


Near Kyoto is the town of Arishiyama. It is, I guess, famous for all sorts of things, but for our intents and purposes, it's the home of the Monkey Park. 

One of the things the website doesn't tell you is that it's a walk to get there. 
A long, steep walk. 
Poor Irene.


The hike and scenery was oddly like the Sierras.

All over the place were signs saying "Do not get closer than 2 meters to the monkeys!"

Monkeys don't read signs.
They would walk right up to you.



Clear umbrellas are ubiquitous in Japan.  This one made a handy cane.

The view over the valley was gorgeous.



The handlers would come out and toss food around with a soundtrack of the circus music. 

The monkeys would roll around, first to catch all the food, then to brag to all their compatriots.





You were allowed to feed them - through the grate - if you were inside the house. 


Everyone loved feeding the babies.


I liked this Grand Dame.  She was slower than the others, but she sat with me for a good, long while. 



Good thing people liked feeding the baby. If any larger monkeys were nearby, they'd knock him off and steal his food.

We were at the top of that mountain. 
Poor Irene.


As I mentioned on Wednesday, it's hard to figure out what is and isn't meatless. 


At least we're sure ice cream is always vegetarian! 



They were finally hungry enough that we stopped at a food-for-tourists restaurant, because it had a menu in English so we could make sure.


Grisha was willing to try the fish. 


Apparently it was acceptable.

Rebecca, Steven, and I got the tempura with prawns (we think a mistranslation of shrimp?) and vegetables. 
The vegetable included whole fried jalapeño.  It was almost homesick. 



As we wandered through town, we kept seeing signs for the Bamboo Forest.
Honestly, we've seen Yosemite, Saguaros, Redwoods.... really, how impressive could bamboo be?
Pro tip:  if you offer to take someone else's picture, they're likely to return the favor.  This works no matter what the language. 



As we were walking towards the forest, there were crowds of people, talking loudly in a Babel of languages. We were feeling like this was a really underwhelming tourist trap that would be a waste of an hour and futile strain on Irene's knee.


The odd thing is, it wasn't impressive at all. 
It was peaceful. 


But a strange thing happened - as soon as we entered the trees, a hush came over everyone. It was as if the trees themselves were absorbing the cacophony and leaving nothing behind but a still quiet.
Fanciful, I know.

Maybe you had to be there.


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