I am glad to bring along my guidebooks with me. From there, I discovered a place where we can do boat ride there. It's called Hozu gawa kudari. It sounds fun, especially with the Toroko (a train). The entrace is fee is around 3,900 yen (which is quite expensive).
I went over to the two new friends' place at the youth hostel at Utano. We had to take bus, then a train, (instead of Toroko as it is closed for maintainence on every Wednesday) then some walking before reaching the place where we are going for the ride.
Quite unexpected that the whole boat ride is more of a sightseeing one. We have about 18 of us on the boat, all elderly except us, and three peddlers on board to kick start the journey. The three are paddling downstream and started to explain the whole trip in Japanese which I can't make a head of tail out of the jokes and stories they are telling. To me, it's the breathtaking scenery and the crystal clear water that makes me awe in surprise. It's a totally different experience with rafting which I had in Sabah.
The whole boat trip took us about 1 1/2 hours.
The boat lead us to the bank of the downstream of Hozu river. There, we could see the famous Tougetsugyo, a bridge that bears a story about a father and a son. It's beautiful with the monkey hill set as a background to this lovely bridge.
Mojo, who is fan to the monkey, has coaxed us to go there too. Though I am not that interested to, but at least I could get to see the whole city of Kyoto from there. The climb was ok. The whole city of Kyoto looks clearer on top. It's beautiful.
Our lunch was a special one, as we went to this obaasan's place, where we had neruzaru soumen (one type of noodle that drops from the top using the mountain water to our platter). It was fun and enjoyable.
Adashino Nenbutsuji temple, a famous place for its bamboo forest. There, we met up with a new friend, Jia Hui from Taipei. We then strolled along Hozu river, Nijojo and lastly to Kyoto Imperial Palace, before we depart on our separate ways.
We had a wonderful and fun time there for the whole time. Now I know that fun time runs fast. It surely is.
Back to the guesthouse, there is another new room mate from Taipei, Cassy Guo. The fun seems to start off well. New friends each day, I wonder who else is coming into my journey?