Kyoto

October 8-14, 2019

Jr and Marcus met us at Narita airport, and from there we made our way immediately to Kyoto via shinkansen (bullet train). We met up with Kypt, Sam, and Matt in Kyoto and spent an awesome but very active week together.

The above photo is at Arashiyama bamboo forest.

We spent lots of time on trains. We noticed how clean they were, with some even having velvet seats! Some of us were grateful for the hanging handhold thingies to be at such an advantageous height. Google maps actually worked pretty well for navigation through their train and subway system.

Tried some takoyaki (fried octopus balls).

Beautiful riverside view by the Arashiyama forest area.

Fed the monkeys at a monkey park. Saw a monkey spat. Took a selfie (Tripod).

Hiked up Fushimi Inari gates. This was intense! I came in sandals and was really wishing I had brought workout gear. Sweat was rolling down my body by the end. The gates were beautiful though.

Visited Kinkakuji, the golden temple.

Also hit up Nara and all the free roaming deer there who surround the temple. The deer will bow to you to get sembei (rice crackers). They were rather pushy though, some biting my shirt and pulling hard. At one point they ran after Brandon, which made for a hilarious video captured by Marcus.

Towards the end of the week, we rested more and more at our favorite fancy donut coffeeshop in Teramachi. According to my phone, we walked up to seven miles a couple of those days. No wonder our feet started hurting. We said goodbye to half our group, and traveled back to Tokyo with Marcus and Jr.