Critters in Kyoto

One of the most famous attractions in the North-East Kyoto is the monkey park. To get to it from Kyoto you take a train to the Arashiyama Park, past the shrine, and buy your tickets to see them. Then you climb a steep switch-back path for about 20 minutes (the hike promises to be stunningly beautiful in the fall, but  muggy and miserable in the summer) until  you reach the top. There you will see a little building with the only words you want to see: air-conditioning.

From that building you can see Macaques scurrying about with all of their furry, pink-faced mischief. At this point I feel obliged to mention that Macaques can be dangerous creatures if they choose to attack, but there were many park employees standing about a surprising amount of signs displaying a "do not" list. The most important - or at least the most prevalent - thing to avoid is showing the monkey that you have food. Do not do that. You are also not supposed to crouch down, look them in the eye, or pet them...

You can, however, feed them apple slices from within the wired off building for one hundred yen. When you finish with the monkeys and the stunning view from the top of the mountain you must make your way down the mountain again to the rest of Arashiyamas activities. For part of the way down (if you are a child) there is even a slide.

The other animal in this tourist town are the cormorants. 

When I was little I read a book called "Ping" which you can now enjoy via YouTube. In the story there is a small section about traditional cormorant fishing (which originated in China but came to Japan a long time ago). In this YouTube rendition you can fast forward to 3:26 to see what I mean.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKBTOM4Whg

On summer nights you watch this traditional craft from the shore or closer from boats. In the pictures below you can see the small lights on the tourist boats and the great ball of fire on the boat with the birds which is used to give the birds directions.

If you look closely at the pictures below, you can see the birds swimming and fishing in front of the boat. When they are finished fishing they ride on the stern of the ship back to the dock. If you are curious about what a cormorant looks like, then here is a link. 

 http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/c/cormorant/

Here is a video of the process in China on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S6WospJaZk