Up at 9:00 today slowed by our "binge" drinking last night on the porch (two beers each) and out the door by 10:30. We decided to check out the Iwatayama Monkey Park to see some snow monkeys so we grabbed the subway as far west is it would take us. Based on the map we got from the hostel it looked like a nice short walk from there, nothing more than a mile, so walking and saving some cash seemed like the best option. We set out from the subway station and quickly realized we would need umbrellas so we stopped in a gas station and bought two. Continuing on our walk we made it down to Shijo-dori and hooked a right and kept walking..and walking..and walking. It was basically a death march in the rain, our one mile walk became a 3.5 mile hike. Finally we made it to the entrance to the monkey park, payed out 500 yen, got a pamphlet that said don't stare at the monkeys and then... looked up... we still had a twenty minute hike to the top to see the monkeys. Fearing a repeat of the Grand Canyon we pressed on hiking up the wet gravel in about 200% humidity. As we reached the top there were monkeys everywhere. Honestly, at first it was a little unnerving having monkeys running all around you screaming at each other, but after awhile you get used to it and then it is awesome. The monkeys are pretty much free to go and do as they please and you can even feed them, but have to do it from inside a fenced in hut. The adolescent ones were the most entertaining wrestling with each other and jumping on each other in the water. We probably spent a good 30 minutes watching them and taking pictures. From there we walked back down the hill to find lunch, but struggled to find anything other than snacks and ice cream around all the shrines so we decided head back to our side of town.Figuring we were close to the the Hankyu Arashiyama Line we walked across the bridge and found a train station, bought our tickets and got on the train. Riding along feeling glad to be on a train and not walking we rode all the way to the last stop and got off. Unfortunately when we walked out of the station we realized that we were not where we thought we were and had no clue other than we were back on Shijo dori, which runs east to west. So what did we do, we started walking..and walking, and still more walking.. another 2 miles until we saw familiar store fronts. At that point it was nearly 4pm so we grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel.
About an hour or so later we headed back out and checked out some more shrines. Nothing really new here other than a Samurai statue that we took a picture in front of doing our best Japanese teenage girl pose.
We decided to do some shopping after that stopping off in the toy store to get something for Marty and then to walk the arcade. As we were going along we noticed a vintage t-shirt thrift shop and had to stop in. For all you people who say Chris and I have know style.. that we don't know fashion... the truth is we are visionaries in Japan. The whole store was covered in t-shirts from our youth. Dare shirts, old gym shirts, faded sports shirts, and the best of all an orange "This is my Costume" t-shirt exactly like the one Chris bought a few years back. We probably spent 30 minutes in there looking through all the old t-shirts ranging in prices from 5-20 bucks laughing about at how fashionable we are in Japan. I stumbled on to a red Dare shirt I had to add to my collection; sadly it is too small and now is on its way to being a gift for Kirk who doesn't really deserve it, but is getting it anyway. We continued shopping, but couldn't really top the t-shirt shop. Chris tried to win an anime costume for Melissa from a claw game and got really close on his first try, which inspired him to put more money in. 600 or so yen later he finally gave up, the thing had not moved since his first try and was just hanging on the edge not going anywhere. At that point we headed here to our favorite internet cafe. It is a little pricey, but they have free ice cream and soda so it is worth it.
It is off to Osaka tomorrow and our first Hyatt is due up...thank god. I must be getting a little soft in my old age; a pillow top mattress and my own shower is already sounding nice.
