DAY THREE
Today the plan is to go on a scenic tram ride in the mountains, or along the mountain anyway.As we get there-which was a little miracle by the way, because Michiel went back to uni, me and my parents braved the train system on our own! All jokes aside though, its actually pretty easy once you know what to do. As we get there, there is again a massive que and a man shouting in Japanese.
view of the river on the way to the bamboo forest
the bamboo forest
People in the que go: “Hai Hai Hai” (yes yes yes) and streched out their arms to the man. We tried to get his attention, but sadly he didn’t speak English so we had no idea what he was going on about. When we got to the ticket desk they didnt really know any English either and just managed to tell us that the next 3 hours the train was full so we bought 3 tickets for the next available train and sat outside to cook up a new plan for the next 3 hours. luckily there is so much to do in Kyoto that we had no trouble to fin something and we strolled past another temple, past a river and another mountain back drop (Kyoto lies between 3 mountains: Higashiyama (Eastern Mountains), Kitayama (Northern Mountains) and Arashiyama (Stormy Mountains) in the west - these were the Arashiyama). On the mountains there were again the beautiful tell tale autumn colours and the road busy with the tell tale tourists. We walked straight into a bamboo forest, whilst listening to loud monkey screams. Sadly we didn’t actually get to see a monkey, but it was nice to know that they where there. The bamboo is very high indeed and I was half expecting to see some Panda’s chomping away but I didn’t.
In time we got back to the train station and exitedly we waited, took our seats and off we where! at the next station however, many more people embarked, and got told by some Japanese people, that we were in their seats, we showed them our ticket to ask where we were sitting and to our horror he said: Standing ticket! We don’t mind standing but this way you don’t get to see the views!!
Standing tickets
Amazing views despite the standing ticket
That must’ve been what the man was shouting about back at the ticket office!!!!! Cheeky little buggers for not trying to explain the difference… Oh well, we made the most of it and we alternated the standing spot by the only free window, with a lovely Japanese couple. Did I mention yet by the way that Japanese people are very polite? Very humble and obedient almost. You have to tred very carefully and respect their culture as to not to offend them. Not that you wouldn’t anywhere else, but more so here, as they are so humble. An example of this is after we disembark the sightseeing tram, we get distracted by the sunset and the effect it has on the autumn forest on the other side, that by the time we want to walk to the station, their is no more croud to follow. We ask a Japanese man the way to the train station. Sadly, he speaks no English, but bless him, he summons us as he will walk us there, we try to tell him its ok, just tell us the direction. but it all gets lost in translation and he walks us to the station anyway..
at Kyoto Station we have a little look around the shops before retiring back to the guesthouse….
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