Once again I was awake and unable to get back to sleep at 6. I eventually got up and packed up before leaving with Angharad to head for JR Osaka. Here we set about getting to Kyoto. Surprisingly, a ticket was only about £3. The trip took half an hour and we were soon in the modern steel builing that houses the station, many shops, a department store and several rooftop gardens in a 12 storey design.
The weather had fully turned and it was a scorching day with no clouds at all. The walk to our ryokan (Matsuba-ya) only took the advertised 10 minutes and we found that although we'd to book 2 separate rooms (Angharad was only staying for one night) they were next to each other and actually connected by an internal door. With our excess luggage dumped, we set out to explore western Kyoto. A 20 minute train ride left in the suburb of Arashiyama. The narrow streets filled with tourists lead us to a bamboo forest. The experience of being surounded by these unusual trees was very weird. A half hour walk lead us down to th river where a lot of people had gathered. Eventually the reason became clear as a festival parade passed by. Crossing the river lead to the Iwatayama Monkey Park. My Wikitravel guide warned about a steep climb, but nothing could have prepared us for the mountanous hike we had to undertake to reach the monkeys at the top. Along the way we were bombaed with signs telling us among other things, not to let thm see we had food and not to make eye contact with them. I'm not really sure why making eye contact with a macaque monkey is a bad idea; perhaps a zoologist can leave a comment. The top of the mountain thankfully contained a panoramic view over the sprawling city that we enjoyed as we got our breathe back. A keeper offered to take our picture with a monkey (which involved throwing nuts at our feet), but all he managed to do was to get a fully overexposed picture of pure white - I'm not quite sure how. We then went into the small hut where there was a strange mix of howling monkeys and screeming children - hungry, grabby monkeys and small children don' mix well. We fed them some apples and then wet outside for a talk which unfortunately was in Japanese.
After the long decent back down to the river we had an ice cream - Angharad choosing the curious combination of vanilla and green tea flavour - and caught a bus back into town. From here a series of bus rides around the city began as we found ourselves arriving at various locations too late to gain admition. In the end we decided to cut our losses for the day and get some dinner. After consulting the Wikiguide, we arrived near the river where there was a strefull of restaurants. First, we cut into a bar for some margaretas and snacks before walking up the small street looking for food. For some reason my appetite has been odd all week - I can walk all day and not feel even remotely hungry. This was one of those days. We found a nice place that catered to us well and offered me the small meal I needed. Angharad again suggested karaoke and this time I was in the mood so headed back to the main street and into the first karaoke box establishment we found.
We were shown up to our small booth on the 5th floor (4th floor in UK terms). Drinks were brought to us and we set about ruining some of the finest songs to emerge in the last 20 years (and S Club 7). After our hour, Ang managed to get us another half an hour and the catawalling continued culminating in a duet of A Whole New World that would have had Regina Bell and Paebo Brsyon ruing the day they ever agreed to record the song in the first place. A brisk walk got us back to the ryokan easily before the 11pm curfew. As I lay on my futon whishing the air conditioning was more powerful I went to sleep with the thought - I never did figure out what was wrong with that river...
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