Sapporo City

The sights of Sapporo were quite amazing. It is Japan's 5th largest city and has developed into a modern metropolis very quickly. The city was built with the American Blocks system so most of the streets are in order from 1 to ... and East and West of the center where the Snow Festival was held.

Sapporo Park Hotel - From the front

View out of the window of my room

The mountains in the background - view from window of room

At the Cookie Factory we had a light lunch. It was beautiful, both the lunch and the sights

The main entertainment area of Sapporo which also included the more scummy parts of society...

... including a "Soap Land"Soapland is, and I quote "(ソープランド, sōpurando^?) is a type of brothel in Japan where male clients can engage in sexual activity with female prostitutes, although officially the clubs do business as places where the client is bathed. There are also a few soaplands specifically for female clients."

Arashiyama

After deciding to do some sightseeing things again I hopped on my bike and sped off towards Arashiyama. Being the end of the Autumn Leaves Season, I wasn't expecting much colour to remain on the trees but I still wanted to go. Once I got there, I took the 20 min walk to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view of Kyoto and to captures some playful monkeys on film (well, Digital SD card but whatever). After spotting the first cheeky one in the tree above me, I found myself at the summit only to be surrounded by 50 or so monkeys. It was a bit like being back in Yellowstone National Park and seeing the first bison crossing the road. Everyone stops to take pictures until you get bored, carry on driving over the next hill only to find yourself surrounded by several 100 of them. Having read the signs of "don't stare" etc I was cautious as I approached them and even though they seemed tame, their screeches and fighting amongst each other did make a lot of children cry. After feeding some monkeys with apples I carried on my sightseeing-way down the mountain to 天龍寺 Tenryuutera and the World Heritage sight that is the Zen garden.

Cute Warning Sign at the entrance

Monkey in the tree

After feeding the monkeys calmed down

Mmmm, apples are tasty

These 2 were fighting each other over scraps

They were so cuteAnd very hungry. Monkeys have sharp fingernails if you didn't know...The view from the monkey park overlooking KyotoMonkey and fish sharing the pondI got my Zen on while visiting the garden - at peace with the world now