Arashiyama in search of macaques

On Sunday, we headed up, via 4 trains, to a little place about an hour away from Osaka. Arashiyama, a pleasant subarb west of Kyoto, was originally used by the imperial family to relax but the palaces were later converted to Buddhist Temples and monasteries. The Hozugawa and Hatsuragawa rivers runs through this very green, leafy and lush area, cutting a fine gorge amongst the mountains. It's a small river by Japanese standards but it's a beautiful place, very peaceful once you can get away from the crowds...and there were CROWDS here on this day ladies and gentlemen, oh yes. It was a long weekend here so we had today, Monday, off. The Japanese tend to travel en masse to all these types of places in their thousands and the gaijins tend to go aswell, hence it was full of all sorts. The area is famous for it's fishing and style of fishing employed by the locals. They use cormorants to catch fish, you may have seen this on a David Attenborough progam at some point, but unfortunately we didn't see it. Apparently, they only do this at night time. Of course you can pay to go with them so maybe next time...
The main aim of the trip, for me at least, was to find the Japanese Macaques which roam the mountains here. As a tourist draw, they have set up feeding stations to lure them down the mountain and "entertain" the throngs of tourists that come here every year. Unfortunately, being the begining of autumn here, they are well up the mountain slopes feeding on nuts and berries so they tend not to come to the feeding stations. So it was with a heavy heart and I left my pursuit of seeing wild monkeys for the first time to another day.

There is a train that trundles up the gorge which we were going to take but, erroneously perhaps, declined to go as the only ticket left was standing only and the views would not have been as spectacular from that angle...another day for sure. After the train journey, one can get a boat back downriver, which takes about an hour, and it is apparently the best way to view the gorge. I feel that in autumn proper, when the leaves turn, will be a glorious time to re-visit this magical little place. Next month perhaps...

We did visit the Daihikaku Senkoji Temple which is situated about a kilometre or so up the gorge and is a bit of a hike up the steep slope but it is worth the hike. The view is fantastic and the monk there is very friendly. He is from Osaka and we were talking about our time in Japan with him. A truly nice man and I could see why he lives there. Sometimes he must use fire crackers to scare away the monkeys from taking drinks and trinkets from the shrine.

There were other critters to be seen, this little guy was most obliging in his posing!! I also saw the biggest dragonfly I have EVER seen. I spent at least an hour trying to get a photo of it but it just wouldn't stay still enough for me!! However, I did get some crippling (good word) images of a different dragonfly species! Nice....just for JW, I have put them up on the photopage, hope you enjoy them.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Bamboo Forest. It was remarkable to see bamboo as tall as these guys were! Reminded me of Crouching Tiger scene when they are fighting through the trees. Amazing spectacle and apart from the mozzies, well worth checking out...

Ok then, sin e for the moment. Check out the photopage for more images of Arashiyama and the wildlife there...thank you for your patience!!

PS: Pee Wee, this week I have mostly been eating tofu
PPS: Also got a haircut this weekend...shorto