A Different Memory: World War II Through the Eyes of Japan : First Day in Kyoto: Nishiki Market, Bamboo Forest, and Monkey Forest

Yesterday after getting off the bullet train I went to the hostel and rested for the rest of the day. I was WAY TO TIRED to do anything... Jet lag must be kicking in:(. Today was pretty cool though, I spent most of my day exploring the Nishiki Market which is famous in Kyoto! At the market, I ate many different things such as baby octopus on a stick, grapefruit juice fresh out of the fruit, and various weird flavored pastries that I could not even hope to remember their names. After that, I met up with two guys that I met in Tokyo and we made our way to Arashiyama to try to see the bamboo forest. The Arashiyama area is probably my favorite place in Japan so far. Kyoto itself is more traditional looking than Tokyo with thousands of temples and much older buildings. However, something about the feel of Arashiyama makes it seem like a much different place and I really like the area. The Bamboo Forest was was just like you see in all the pictures, extremely beautiful, but much smaller than I thought. On the way to the forest, we saw a sign that led to a Monkey forest and just could not pass it up. After an hour hike to get to where the monkeys were, we were exposed to a beautiful view and hundreds of monkeys just roaming around the outpost. At the outpost, we got to feed multiple monkeys both old and young which was a cool ending to our time in Arashiyama. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the temple that was in the forest and I plan to make my way back before I leave Kyoto.