Day 30 - Arashiyama: Of Bamboo and Various Sorts of Apes...

Arashiyama is one of the first Google tips for 'bamboo forest Kyoto'. That's why we visited it as well, together with crowds of Japanese and foreign tourists - including some Italians raving of beautiful Japanese women... Once again, the forest saved us from the heat - in contrast to some poor guys that earn their living by as rickshaw runners - notably running and not just walking.

After this stunning beauty of nature, we hiked up to the Iwatayama hill, the site of Arashiyama Monkey Park in Kyoto's northwest. A exhausting business, but again it was worth it. There was a special installation where the humans had to enter a cage for feeding the apes that scrambled on the grids. A nice contrast to regular zoos where the humans are free and the animals sit in cages.
Relieved from the burden of searching for food, most of the apes were busy with delousing each other. After feeding time between 15 and 16 o'clock, where dozens of apes came very close to their human visitors, we even spotted two baby apes!
Since the apes can be nasty at times, you shouldn't approach them closer than 2 meters, should never stare them in the eyes, should never crouch down and, of course, never touch them. I became a little afraid of one ape with some sort of wart in his face which was quite aggressive and was looking for trouble. It seemed to be an alpha animal and again demonstrated that apes and humans are biological relatives...

One of these little apes tried to scramble on the grids of the human's cage but couldn't manage to descend. That's why his mother came to rescue him. Such a cute situation, really!

What I learned? The most musculus male body doesn't cover an bad character. I cannot believe someone even dares walking around topless in Japan. And as if this disrespectfulness wasn't enough, he took ape selfies for about ten mins! Okay, selfies are common in Japan, but not too selfish, please. And if this wasn't enough now, he randomly asked a couple if they wanted a picture of themselves, he would make the beeestest picture of your entireeee vacaaaaation! Go back home, please.