Weekend 7: Iwatayama Monkey Park (So Fun!)

I'm giving you the sneak peak I didn't have when I thought I may not make it up this mountain.

(Which probably really isn't that big of a climb). 

Erin said on the way up (when we were sweating and trying to catch our breath), "Whose dumb idea was it to come to this place?"  Then we reached the plateau and she said it was her favorite thing so far...and don't you all think that Jim didn't latch on to that one and make some good fun!!!

This picture doesn't even do it justice, but here are some of the stairs we climbed up...

Here is a map of the climb:

Some encouragement along the way...



When we were about to reach the plateau at the top, we stop to observe a monkey in the woods.  Then a few monkey friends ran near to join the girls.  The girls started screaming!  Jim grabbed Sarah and helped Grace keep walking.  There was never any danger.  It's just none of us had ever been that close to a monkey before.  And just think...in about a half hour they were literally eating out of our hands!

At the plateau



The Japanese Macaque Monkey is the only monkey you will find in Japan.  This park is inhibited by about 170 monkeys.  We saw two very cute babies and this mama was very protective of her little one!  There were several little spats between the monkeys when one got a little too close to her little one.

This was the other view (aside from the monkeys) at the top.  The city of Kyoto surrounded by mountains.  It was very nice.

Weekend 7: Kyoto Shrine

We've been waiting to go to Kyoto for when Erin arrived.  Kyoto is formerly the imperial capital of Japan, but now it is the capital of it's Prefecture (kind of like our states).  You will find many shrines and temples in Kyoto.

We only made it to this Shrine - the Shimogamo Shrine.  It was built in the year 678.  That seems hard to imagine that something is so old.  It certainly doesn't look it.

We took several pictures and explored the area of the shrine.  We observed several Japanese citizens paying homage and praying at the shrine.  It was wooded area (lots of green space which is a bit different than city living) and very relaxing.

Below is a picture of the girls a the bottom of the shrine, near the street.  We had just finished a little breakfast snack and I just thought they were cute!

Back to Kids Plaza (3rd trip)

We went to Kids Plaza Osak again this week and took Erin.  We still are finding things we haven't seen there and we have never been there less than 4 hours!  the place is huge.  Here is a picture of the building:

The girls still love it so much and it definately fills our time for the entire day!

Sarah wanted to climb the ladder all by herself today (translation:  she didn't want mommy to follow her up).  Grace went first to help and Erin followed.  She really didn't need either of them, but I did.








The center of this place is an area of climbing towers, sliding down a slide (if you are big enough - only Grace is), climbing stairs, etc.  It also allows you to move between the various levels of the building without taking the elevator.



Mirrors on ceiling



Today, the girls got to be newscasters...yet another section of this place that we hadn't tried yet.

Another section they have there is the bubble section!  Here you see Sarah inside a very large bubble! Grace did it too, but we weren't able to get a good photo.  Maybe next time....

While the girls spent about an hour playing with trains, Erin spent some time entertaining herself building a tall tower!

We found a new section of Kids Plaza Osaka today...it had a train car that you could "ride" in, complete with turnstyles and this was the view from one of the windows nearby this area.