嵐山

My roommate, Keitaro, and I went to Arashiyama yesterday. We rode our bikes there from our house, which was a somewhat formidable journey (about 7 miles, 1+ hours). I've been to Arashiyama before, but it is still an incredibly gorgeous place. A long river winds its way through mountainous countryside. Taro and I stopped at a large grocery store on the way to buy ramen and kimchi (which I have fallen in love with).

When we got there, we rode our bikes along the river a bit, stopping frequently to take pictures and observe the beautiful surroundings. Then we climbed up a little mountain to get a good view of the area, although I think we may have been better off going up the larger mountain...

On the way up the mountain was a hilarious sign in Japanese warning us about violent monkeys that live there. Here's the sign:

The sign says:

"Please be cautious of wild monkeys.

• Do not approach the monkeys.
• Do not fight/play/associate with the monkeys.
• Do not make eye contact with the monkeys.
• Do not feed the monkeys."

Pretty funny, actually. Unfortunately, we did not see any monkeys, though I could have sworn I heard some weird chirping in the distance...

Here are some pictures of the trip. The full album is here.