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Great for: Beauty and seeing adorable monkeys
How to get there: Plane, or train from Osaka
Best experience: Having a baby monkey walk over my shoes at the monkey sanctuary
Accommodation: K-Hostel (fantastic place!)
Hello! こんにちは! (Konnichiwa)
Kyoto, Japan is in the Kansai region, it’s a city with a lot of history- in fact it used to be the largest city in Japan! It’s very warm in the summer with lots of sunshine.
Kyoto was a place for nature and beauty. It’s not as famous as Tokyo or Osaka but is still a pretty popular destination for travellers in Japan, I took the train from Osaka, on a side note Japanese bullet trains are pricy but amazing, super comfortable and efficient, hardly a surprise in a country known for excellent transport! I wanted this part of my trip to be filled with nature, calm and peace so I rented a bicycle out.
Cycling through farmlands from dawn to dusk was the perfect way to find some chill in a busy month of exploring the country.
Arishayama Bamboo forest was the place I wanted to visit the most, it was so perfectly peaceful and calm and despite it being summer it was very quiet, it was easy to get lost among the trees. There were a few scammers trying too entice you to pay large amounts of money to go into side alleys and even more bugs trying to suck blood. It’s a lovely place to visit but cover yourself in bug repellant!
The second place I cycled to was the Monkey Park, Iwatayama! This was one of my favourite experiences, anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals and a place where monkeys were both able to run free and exist harmoniously with humans had a huge appeal! The monkeys ran freely in a huge forest on top of a mountain, babies ran past and every tree had a cute face peering down. The monkeys were completely at ease and could approach the humans if they wanted for treats and snacks. Unlike many other places I’ve seen wild monkeys this was very much a small section in natural habitat to observe rather than monkeys being tempted to interact with humans. This was hands down the best animal experience I’ve had to date and I would recommend it to anyone!
So many photos but aren't the monkeys adorable!
Have you ever been to Kyoto? Is is on your bucket list? Stay tuned for more posts on my trip around Japan!
- Emmy