Iwatayama Monkey Park, Kyoto

7 days in Japan- 10/20/2023-10/26/2023

Day 6- Kyoto-10/25/2023

Iwatayama Monkey park

Iwatayama Monkey park is located at the peak of Mountain Iwata with a height of about 525 ft. You begin the trek at the base of the hill and trek up with a moderate incline most of the way up, there are a few area that are a little steeper but overall it was not a difficult hike. We took our time and made it to the top in about 30 minutes

This the base of the hill, the entrance to the park.

Entering the park

Torii gate at the base of the park

The first thing you see after climbing the steps is a huge landing with a tickets booth (right) and a shrine (see below).

View from the Torii gate over the river below.

Hoa in front of the Torii gate. We are barely up that the view is already nice.

The admission fee is 600 Yen which is about $4.

Ichitani Munakata Shine is a small shrine over looking the Katusura river. People do not have to go up to mountain to see the monkeys, they can stay here and pray.

The main gate to the shrine.

Hoa buying tickets to get up to the top of the mountain to see the monkeys.

Entering the park.

This is the first road leading to the top.

View of the city as we are going up.

A lot more stairs up...

Same area are flat so the walk up is very pleasant too.

Beautiful view of the forest.

We are steadily going up.

Trees with roots growing out of the top soil.

Beautiful pine trees in the forest.

It is so beautiful around here.

A resting area on the right.

Sign teaching people how to act when they encounter a monkey

Monkeys in Arashiyama Park is an endemic species called Japanese Monkey or Macaca fiscate . They live in the northernmost habitat in the work and so they also called snow monkey.