Gardens and Monkeys

Andrew finally caved and bought a hoodie to stave off the morning chill. Which is well, since we took an early-ish train to Arashiyama--a district in western Kyoto nationally designated as a place of scenic beauty! It was only a few degrees that morning but the sun was out and doing its best. Arashiyama is known for temples, its monkey park, and the famous bamboo grove. Once off the train we made a beeline for the grove, as it fills up very quickly with tourists even in the off season.

Found these cuties on the way

These ones too

The walk was about 700m and had a small shrine in the middle. A crew was harvesting some bamboo as well; I hadn't considered that the grove was an active farm before seeing that. After exiting the path we found a small park, and saw our first cherry blossoms! We weren't sure if we would be too early in the season to see them, but this bodes well for the final days of our trip. They are very fragrant; the pink smell more fruity, the white more floral.

Tucked in to the south of the bamboo grove is Tenryū-ji, a 14th century Zen temple that features a beautiful garden. Over the years it grew to incorporate over 150 shrines and subtemples, some of which have survived. The complex was devastated by no fewer than five fires over the centuries, and most of what you see today was reconstructed after the most recent fire during the mid 19th century. The main temple itself--what you're allowed to visit anyway--is fairly empty. Mostly large, open, tatami-floored rooms used for tea ceremonies.

Wood carving of Gautama Buddha

If you're ever in the area, check out the garden but skip the temple (admission is separate). It's open-air and you can see most of what's accessible from the grounds anyway.

After our time in Tenryū-ji we walked south a few blocks and found ourselves at the foot of a small mountain. If you've been following the blog you know what that means! Lucky for us the trail was paved and there happened to be a convenient monkey park partway up, so we stopped there. This protected area houses a troupe of 140 Japanese Macaques, which is larger than one you'd find in the wild. These monkeys live for about thirty years, and are found the farthest north of any primate (with one notable exception writing this post). They've documented and named every macaque living here for as long as the park has been around, which is about forty years! For a paltry 100¥ you can even feed the little rascals peanuts or apples, what's not to love?

Getting all the sun they can

One can only feed them from inside the hut

The monkeys were very docile around humans, even walking up to and around the groups on the observation deck. There was clearly a pecking order between them however, with some larger males chasing off smaller ones from the feeding area. Babies weren't safe either, and we had to hand bites of apple directly to the small ones to avoid them having it stolen. For example, check out this clip.

Konichiwa!

Our travels have found us in Japan after a red-eye flight from Hanoi to Osaka. Luckily we had lots of fantastic coffee in Vietnam to tide us over. The weather is quite a bit colder here, which should ease us back in to Edmonton's climate in a couple of weeks (boo!).

Some don't mind the cold

In fact our first order of business was to pick up a sweater for Mary, as well as try out some local snacks like taiyaki, okonomiyaki, and fried Japanese maple leaves. The production of the latter is quite involved, as they need to pickle leaves picked right off the tree for a full year before frying.

Taiyaki; fish-shaped baked dough with red bean filling

Okonomiyaki; a savoury pancake with lots of flavour

Momiji tempura; crunchy!

The maple leaves were purchased on the way up to Minoh Falls north of Osaka. While it is still early in the year and some trees are still bare, it was a very picturesque hike with a small temple along the way.

She heard me yell "duck!"

 Nyoirinkannon temple

Once we reached the waterfall, we were only a few short kilometres from Katsuō-ji, a temple dedicated to "victor's luck". It was established in 765, but given this name in 880 when the emperor credited his recovery from illness to praying here. Upon arriving at this temple we noticed something... different.

Can't shake the feeling I'm being watched...

Daruma are a sort of good luck charm, so it's fitting the the temple would be absolutely covered with them. When created and painted, their eyes are left blank. When a person acquires one, they make a wish and paint or draw on one eye. The other eye is completed once the wish is fulfilled, and some people bring their finished daruma here to Katsuō-ji to bask in concentrated luck.

There are at least 9 in this shot alone

Have you counted them all?

Seriously there's a quiz at the end

There's even a labyrinth if you're in to that sort of thing

With all the sights seen--and the rain beginning to fall--it was time to make our way back down the mountain. It was getting chilly, and we only brought so many snacks you see.

Definitely punctured my jeans

Pirates and fishermen

What is there to do around Hanoi? Beyond getting blocked by Trump's motorcade, seeing museums, and wandering the parks? Go to Halong Bay!

Some wind involved...

A new expressway opened up recently, shortening the drive from 4 hours to 2 hours one way. Unfortunately, most tours still take the slow way to avoid the toll (not that bad) and to ensure they still get kickbacks stopping at the shops and restaurants lining the slow route. After doing a little research, we decided to cut the time on the road on half and double the boat time by splurging for the cruise. The massage chair reclinable seats with USB ports on the shuttle were excessive, but after the insane bus ride to the tunnels by Saigon, no regrets!

We enjoyed the scenery and were fed an alright lunch floating by island after island. We ended up sitting with the one other vegetarian on the ship and chatted about ethical tourism with her and her mother.

Cooking class for fresh spring rolls as an afternoon snack

Post gorge, it was time to kayak! The one complex cave system was too shallow unfortunately, but we still had fun splashing around the rock formations of the cliffs and taking some shorter tunnels. We paddled ahead of the group and were warned not to go out on the open ocean. Spirits lifted by the sun after a foggy start, we sang Last Saskatchewan Pirate on the way to the dock.

Kayak for scale

Half of our fellow trip takers opted to be paddled around on bamboo rafts rather than kayak, so it wasn't a big surprise that only a handful of us opted to get really wet with a swim. Mary was the only woman to brave the chilly water for a splash, but it was incredibly refreshing. They'd chosen a spot further out, which meant there was almost no garbage in the water and you could pretend everything was all clean...

On the way back to port we docked with a small floating village, which was comprised of shacks on large rafts equipped with outboard motors. These are fisher folk, subsidized by the Vietnamese government to live and work here for a period of ten years. They fish for grouper and other seafood, and boat into town every Sunday to sell their catch.

There were some very cute residents