Random Facts/Stats
- Japan has 15 national holidays per year.
- The probability of a random day being a holiday is ~4.11%.
- I was there for 12 days, which gives me a ~49.3% chance of being there on a holiday.
The most cultural Japanese city is Kyoto. Conincidentally, it was November, 3rd--Culture Day! Ron had created an itinerary consisting of cultural sites (temples) and a couple other places. So after eating sandwiches at the train station we took a train to a nearby temple.
On the way to the "main" temple there were a lot of smaller temples like this one.
From what I've heard it's not really sanitary to drink the water since people aren't supposed to touch their lips to the ladle but do so anyways. So I'm just posing here. 
a wall inside the temple with a cool dragon painted on it
One thing to note about temples is that you generally have to pay to get in. The amount varies, and you have to consider if it's worthwhile (both time/money-wise). Although this temple seemed pretty cool, my brother and I are both of the opinion that if you've seen one you've seen them all. This would seem to be especially true since the one that I saw was in Kyoto which is supposedly where all the best temples are.
bamboo forest 
Ron and a zillion other tourists in bamboo forest
It's only the beginning of the hike, and I'm tired already. I'm also looking extra touristy with my jacket tied around my waist.
It's a long climb to the top...
While we were hiking through this area there was a family that passed us up. I'm really out of shape, so it probably wouldn't surprise most people if I mentioned that the husband and kids passed us. However, the wife was leading in front of everyone, and she was carrying one of her kids!
This is a picture from way above looking down at what I thought was the top in the previous picture. We're just past half-way.
Upon arriving at the top we found an employee. Apparently, his job is to take your picture with this monkey. Well, maybe not, but it's a pretty convenient/coincidental that he and this monkey are there. It just just sits in the middle of the visitor area away from all the other monkeys spacing out all day.
a view from the top. It's mid-fall and trees are starting to change color. It's worth noting that Kyoto doesn't really have any skyscrapers in contrast to other cities like Osaka and Tokyo.
This brings me to the most important point of this post. Hiking is super awesome in Japan! A lot of the paths are paved well, and some even have restaurants/snack places along the way. Although it seemed hard, this was basically the first and easiest hill I tried to climb.
Maybe I just like hiking in general. Half of the fun is seeing what interesting things there are along the way. There's also something about completing a climb. There's almost always a view at the top. It's stuff that you would've missed if you hadn't put in the effort to make it there.
