In an effort to beat the crowds we got up and had bfast in the hotel at 7 and hit the road at 7.30. We went straight to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama and we were lucky enough to be one of the few people doing the walk at that time. It was very pretty. Although not very long so I'm not sure why it's such a huge tourist attraction and it would not be nice in a big crowd. We walked up the mountain and saw a beautiful view down into the valley. All of the boys are complaining about how much walking we do but I just keep ahead of them so they have to follow 😉 We then walked down along the river and over the bridge to the money park, which was another steep uphill walk 😂 But it was so worth it because there were about 50 monkeys walking around. You could feed them from inside the hut or be outside with them in the open as long as you didn't get too close. We saw some beautiful babies and it was so much fun to watch them play. As soon as the crowds appeared we left and walked back down the mountain. We decided to splurge and paid for a 45 min rickshaw ride around the bamboo forest and local streets and shrines. It was so much fun and our guides were so informative and funny and they took lots of pictures for us. Just as the tour ended it started pouring with rain so we decided to go back to the hotel to dry off and have some lunch. Steve had a sleep while I backed up all our photos and the boys played with the toilet. There was a lot of giggling coming from the bathroom 😂 The toilets have all sorts of functions here, seat warming, sprays, sounds and smells, its a lot to take in 😉 This afternoon we walked back through the fish markets and little shops, eating foods along the way. We walked into Gion, the old town of Kyoto, and it was pretty but we didn't stay long as it was still raining. We ended up back at the hotel by 7.30 and are packing up to move on again tomorrow ☺
