Whisky, Monkeys, Bamboo and Home!

Suntory Yamazaki Whisky Museum

Our last full day in Japan would first see us visiting the Yamazaki Whisky Museum. We’d booked this earlier, but even by then the paid tour with tastings were already full. We hopped on the train and arrived at the distillery front gate/security office and were given passes to wear and directed to the museum building.

We were able to walk through the museum and explore the history of Yamazaki Whisky. Being something of a Whisky fan, I was pretty excited to read about its history in Japan. As much as I enjoyed going going through its story, I was impressed with the collection of Whiskies the distillery boasts. Not only do they have all of its own Whisky’s, they also have bottles from different regions all over the world. I really appreciated how varied and inclusive the collection was!

Whisky Tasting

After touring through the museum, the time had come for us to taste some Whiskey! Because we weren’t part of one of the paid tours, we had to choose and pay for the whiskies we wanted individually. We all decided on a few selections. I went with the Hibiki 21 Year Old, Hakushu 18 Year Old and the Yamazaki 25 Year Old. Of the three I wasn’t super impressed with the Hakushu, but I really liked the Hibiki and Yamazki. Specifically the Yamazki was something special, and it makes me sad that its so expensive and difficult to get. But it was a great way to really taste side by side the differences between them.

Both Gimpy’s husband and I were really excited to come to the distillery and we were both ready to spend some money to pick up something memorable to bring home. However, due to the popularity of Japanese whiskies worldwide, the stock (even at the distillery) was extremely limited. There wasn’t a bottle that was worthwhile for us to pick up, so while the entire experience was pretty amazing, I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get something to bring home.

Arashiyama

Our next stop after the distillery was Arashiyama. This is a small town/district west of Kyoto. We were here to visit the Iwatayama Monkey Park and the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. These were two items that were near the top of our list for the area. When we arrived on the main street of Arashiyama, I was surprised at how touristy it was. Nonetheless, we quickly made our way across the Togetsu-kyo Bridge, stopping only admire how beautiful the area is, despite the hordes of tourists!

Iwatayama Monkey Park

Shortly after crossing the bridge we arrived at the front gate for the Iwatayama Monkey Park. It costs 550 yen to get in, which we gladly paid. While I was excited to see monkeys, I didn’t realize that the monkey’s lived at the top of the mountain. This meant that there’d be a fair bit of physical exertion before we actually arrived where we needed to go. It’s a 30-45 minute uphill walk and by the time we got to the top, I was drenched in sweat!

But, when we arrived, it was all worth it! Not only were there tons of monkeys everywhere, the view of Kyoto was spectacular!

It’s not like zoos where the monkeys live in a habitat and you can watch them from afar, rather they’re free to roam and you’re simply in their space. Every now and then one of the keepers would preemptively “shoo” one away from guests (for safety). But for the most part, they went about their business paying little mind to the humans all around.

There was one area that was caged. There’s a building with caged open air windows for the humans to be inside. This was because the keepers would sell food that visitors could buy and feed the monkeys from inside. The cage was to keep the monkey’s from attacking anyone with food. Instead they would climb onto the cages and reach their hands in allowing you to hand them food. It was actually pretty cool to see both from the inside and out.

We spent a good hour or two at the top. Monkey’s are really cute, and also really fun to watch. Some are mischievous, other’s are lazy and often their interactions made for interesting viewing! I really enjoyed “monkey watching” and also having the amazing view as a backdrop.

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

After pulling ourselves away from the monkeys, we descended the mountain and headed towards the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. This was the other “main attraction” in the area and we wanted to see what the hype was about. It took us a while to find the entrance but when we did, there was no mistaking you were inside the bamboo grove.

We spent some time wandering through some of the paths eventually stumbling upon some small neighbourhoods and even a pretty cool pond/reservoir.

Genroku Sushi Part 2

We were losing light and decided it was probably time to head back to Osaka. It’d be my last dinner in Japan. We really enjoyed the conveyor belt sushi at Genroku Sushi, so we headed back there and really gorged ourselves again! I’m glad we walked so much this day because it made eating feel a little less guilty! We needed to walk off the food we just ate so we again decided to walk around Dotonburi. One thing that I hadn’t gotten throughout my trip in Japan was gyozas! It just so happened that as we were walking we walked by a small gyoza stand. I wasn’t hungry at all, but ended up getting it just to say I did. I wasn’t super impressed as it didn’t seem too different to what we have in Canada, but I’m glad I checked it off the list!

It had been a long day with a lot of great adventures! Sadly, my time in Japan was coming to an end. So I said goodbye to Gimpy and  her hubby and we made our way back to our apartment to pack. There was a little concern about the amount of luggage we had and the amount of items we purchased while in Osaka. But thankfully, I was able to fit everything! FunkyCat, however, ended up buying a second suitcase in order to get all of his purchases packed. In his defence though, he did travel to two more countries than I did!

Homeward bound

Our trio would all be going our separate ways today. Salmonella left early (after saying goodbye) in order to attend the church he had gone to while living in Osaka. Meanwhile FunkyCat and I headed to the Osaka Shinkansen station where he stored most of his bags and I caught the airport shuttle to Itami Airport. From here, it was a short 1 hour flight to Narita Airport. I stopped into one of the airport restaurants to try and get one last meal before leaving Japan. I opted for a nice pint of beer and tempura udon.

Soon after eating, I made my way to the gate for my JAL flight and 10 hours after that I was home.

It’s been about a month since I’ve returned and I still think of Japan fondly. I’m glad that I was able to slightly deviate from some of the “primary” attractions most people go to on their first trip. I’m thankful that Salmonella suggested we head south to Okinawa and up through Kyushu. While I thoroughly enjoyed the major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, I also really enjoyed seeing a different pace, lifestyle, landscape and even climate down south. I know this isn’t going to be my only trip to Japan, and already have ideas of where’d I’d like to go next time (namely Northern Japan during the winter). But I’m extremely happy for how this trip turned out and will have fond memories of this trip for a very long time.