Rokudaime

Eventful day today. We first went to the Arashiyama mountain, where there is a park with wild and free roaming, but gentle and trusting snow monkeys, that are used to people. There are park staff that take care of the monkeys and feed them. We were able to feed them as well. The view from the top of the mountain was also amazing. Then, when we were on our way down from the mountain, we were stopped by two Japanese guys who asked us if we were willing to be filmed by their TV crew along with 4 Japanese teenage idols, and appear on Japanese TV. :-O We said yes, and me and two of my friends were interviewed and filmed together with the 4 idols. It was pretty fun, and a friend of ours filmed the whole thing, so that we can watch it later even if we aren't able to find it on TV.

When we were done and had said goodbye to the TV team and the idols, we went to the Tenryu-ji temple and its surrounding botanic garden, which is yet another Unesco world heritage site. The gardens in particular were beautiful, but a lot of the flowers were not in bloom because it was cold and too early in the year. We also visited a bamboo forest grove.

In the evening there were several local festivals taking place close to where we live, with lights, food stalls, and activities, so went to some of those. We were able to enter the inner gardens of the Kodai-ji temple, which is normally mostly closed, but which was now open to the general public, with lights and activities, because of the festivals.