Rivers, Mountains and Samurai!

Today was a big day out, and the weather was good for it too! Although I think it was a little warm for my liking, we reached the 26 degree mark here. You can tell Summer is coming already. So today I went with my host mother Junko to a few places. Mainly 嵐山 (Arashiyama) and 映画村 (Eigamura)!

Arashiyama is out on to the West of Kyoto and we had to take a fairly long train ride to get there. I'd take a guess at 10-15 minutes. This was my first time on a train in Kyoto, and it wasn't nearly as packed as I remember them being in Tokyo. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was comfortable though... I much prefer the layout and seating in Brisbane trains! After we got off we were greeted with the hustle and bustle of Arashiyama. It was packed, there were people going in all directions! But tha said I had a great time just taking in the scenery and going into the many gift shops around the place. Thankfully, there were also lots of food samples to enjoy!

As well as tonnes and tonnes of shopping to be done, there's also a monkey park on the slopes of Mount Arashiyama, that does seem interesting but it wasn't visited today... possibly sometime in the near future? :D There's also a lot of religious Shinto shrines and whatnot. I have been told the mountains are most beautiful when the cherry blossoms are blooming and in Autumn when they turn a red and gold colour. I'll have to visit again in Autumn, I'm thinking!

After a bit of shopping had been done and photos had been taken, we caught the train back in the direction of Shijo Omiya but got off to go to Eigamura, a studio/theme park in one! It's a huge studio park themed in period Japanese style, complete with Geisha and Maiko wandering around, guys dressed up in Shinsengumi outfits (Which I thought fitting, since I bought a shinsengumi phone strap from Arashiyama haha). There are rides and stuff too, I only went into the Haunted House which was much scarier than I first thought! It was period themed with dead samurai and civilians, blood splattered all over the walls and even decapitated heads and bodies stuck to the walls... haha. That and the ghost that leapt out from the wall behind me and started chasing me D:

What's also interesting about the place is that it's where they film a lot of period movies and TV dramas. Kyoto is probably one of the most popular places to film those sorts of movies, and that's the place where it all happens!

Since I got my camera yesterday, plenty of photos were taken and they can now be seen in the updated photo gallery! Or soon they will anyway, I'm uploading them as I type this.