Today we were headed to a hotel Pokin was excited to surprise Michael and Savannah with.

In her research of Kyoto, she came across a property near the Arashiyama bamboo forest that could only be accessed via a short river boat.

“Sounds middle of nowhere fun!” Thought Pokin. So she made the whole gang check out of their Kyoto hotel, take the transit system for 40 minutes to the edge of Kyoto, haul their luggage for 30 minutes over cobblestone, to check into some hotel for one night.

Arriving to the pick up spot for Hoshinoya involved heading to a small building across from the river with a couple covered river boats. We were told we could drop off our luggage, but that we couldn’t check in till later. No matter, there were things to see around here like monkeys and a bamboo forest.

We started with the Iwatayama Park since it was right beside us.

Rumours were there were monkeys. In a park. This park happened to be located on top of a hill. We we paid our admissions fee and started walking up and up a path.

Turns out the monkeys were all just hanging out near the top of this mountain, in a clearly with a purpose built feeding hut.

We got some apples to feed them. That was fun. The monkeys were kind of rude though.

After we had our fill of feeding monkeys we headed back down to what looked like a carnival stand.

Michael challenged my bud to a game, so they spent some time on that and ended up collecting all sorts of random things.

Then it was back across the bridge towards Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, is one of the region’s main sites. It’s a grove of naturally occurring mōsō bamboo — some of the biggest bamboo stalks I’d ever seen. These are pretty cool.

By now, it was getting close to our check in time, so we started making our way back towards the Hoshinoya boat dock. As we were walking down the main street though, something caught my eye.

There was a whole store dedicated to a bear named Rilakkuma!

I was intrigued. We stopped in.

Not only was there a full store of things worshipping Rilakkuma, but there was even a shrine. Well this I can get behind!

After we paused long enough for me to appreciate how much other cultures appreciate bears, we made it back towards the Hoshinoya boat dock where we waited for our transport.

It was a pretty short wait. We had just enough time for tea and then it was time for our boat ride.

Hoshinoya Kyoto is a small 25-room resort perched on the side of a river. The grounds were peaceful and groomed the way you would expect Japanese gardens to get groomed.

While we were overlooking the river, the balcony wood deck in front of us made it a little difficult to see the river, but we could definitely hear it.

Since you get in and out of the hotel via a boat ride, we pre-arranged dinner reservations. Interestingly it’s not included so the poor souls who don’t know to book in advanced are left with instant noodles? Not really sure. We had reservations for a kaiseki dinner which had all sorts of mystery foods for my bud.

We took some time to enjoy the property and then relaxed for the night. Me, with the incense making kit, my bud, in the wooden bathtub they had in the room.