Arashiyama, Kyoto

I woke up in the morning in my little capsule bed, and decided that I would go to Kyoto today and explore a temple and possibly a monkey zoo.  The train ride to Kyoto from Osaka is only about 45 minutes.  You can easily base yourself in either city and travel back and forth.

Arriving at Kyoto station, I navigated to find the correct train to take to get to Arashiyama station.  When finally reaching the station, it was located in what seemed to be a residential area.  I followed the crowd of other tourists passing the cute Japanese style homes to reach the main street where I found the Tenryu-Ji Temple.  The most popular feature of the temple is the beautiful zen garden complete with a pond loaded with koi fish.

Taken while walking towards the temple.

The Tenryu-Ji Temple

Its beautiful Zen Garden.

At the north gate of the temple towards the mountains, you can exit to find yourself at a bamboo grove.  I found myself walking through in awe and marveling at the size and natural flow of these trees.

Walking back down from the temple grounds and mountainside, I found myself inspired by the picture perfect images of the scenery easily a good representation of Japan in its magical and unique culture.

In my Lonely Planet it lists a monkey zoo in the area, which is not very advertised and not easily found.  I managed to find the place thanks to a small sign that had a picture of a dancing monkey on it.

This is the stairs and entryway leading into the monkey park. 

In order to see the monkey's you have to climb some stairs to the top of the hill where there is a feeding area.  Now this was an interesting concept, the humans are caged in, and the monkey's are free to roam!

The baby monkey is so cute!

Here are a few more pictures I snapped just viewing the cherry blossoms.