Saga holidays

Hello from Saga Arashiyama. 

Although it's called Saga, it's not just for old people who like coach tour holidays and smell of wee. It's actually got a temple, a bamboo forest and kick ass monkeys.

First, Rich had a traditional Japanese breakfast of eggs benedict with crab cakes to fuel him for the day... By comparison Clare had a small dainty meal that was identical to Rich's.

We continued to use our JR Pass - I think Clare feels that, because we have it, we should use it every day.  On arrival at Saga Arashiyama we headed straight for the Iwatayama Monkey Park - it was slightly warm to say the least and an uphill trek.  Much more humid today. Luckily monkeys aren't attracted by sweat, only peanuts, otherwise Clare would have been surrounded.

There are lots of strict warnings about not stoping to take photos and not looking the monkeys in the eyes, until you get to the viewing area.

It might look like the monkey is in a cage. In fact it is the humans who are! No this is not some attempt at a clever metaphor. These monkeys really do come and go as they please and are totally wild, so if you want to feed them you have to do so from inside a cage - as they can get a bit overexcited when there is food about. The big ones in particular would always pick on the little monkeys and take their food.

There were even some cute little babies around four months old.

And for only Y100 you can feed them peanuts or apple pieces.

We of course obliged, like the tourists we are, and fed the greedy little blighters!

Once at the top, there were plenty of monkeys to see without the need of a cage - and the views were great.

Luckily a kind park guide took these excellent photos for us.

We headed back down the hill and went to visit the Tenryuji Temple, which is a Buddhist Temple and a UN World Heritage Site. First of all we visited the Temple itself. We wondered why visiting the Temple was so much cheaper than the Gardens - well it turns out there wasn't much to Temple and you could see it all from the Gardens anyway.

Before visiting the zen Gardens we thought a quick stop for lunch was in order. More pointing at pictures and smiling to place our orders. We weren't quite sure what it was we were eating, but it seemed to be something like "Beancurd and tofu 7 ways" including these little wobbly Beancurd lollipops! 

We would never normally really enjoy these ingredients but lunch was delicious!(Addition: Rich loved lunch because Clare  gave him bits of her food - this is the first and hopefully last time this will happen.  Give Clare a piece of beef jerky over a beacurd lollipop any day.)   

Lunch demolished we headed into the gardens. Rich took lots of photos. Clare hid in the shade and squeaked every time she had to run through the bright sun. Probably the hottest day yet.

Gardens. Tick.

Next - the Arashiyama bamboo forest. 

Rich took photos. 

Clare took photos of Rich. 

Japanese people conducted repeated takes of what seemed to be full on fashion shoots.

The bamboo itself was quite impressive but as far as we could tell it was just a small forest planted for tourists to walk a few hundred metres through. As it's the weekend there are lots of Japanese here as well as foreigner tourists.

Fortunately the little high street here has lots of little gift shops and restaurants. So, in return for putting up with Rich taking lots of photos, he had to buy Clare a chocolate ice cream as compensation. Ice cream number 6 of the holiday... Then off back to the hotel - obviously by using our JR pass.