Minou Park

Fall is in full swing out here, and it's a great time to go wander around Osaka's many parks and temples. It's also great for me since I don't have a job. Every day is a holiday! And the parks are free, which serves my bum self well.

Last weekend, some of my old students (Rika and Yumiko - in the picture) took me up to Minou park in north Osaka. They drove, which is an event in itself. I don't have a car, as public transportation is more than adequate to get me anywhere outside my bike's range. This makes car rides somewhat of an adventure, and I'm like a kid staring out the window the whole time.

Minou is famous for its waterfall, which is really quite nice. The park is pretty much just a big mountain with some river valleys and a few roads through it. Tough walking, but very scenic. It's also well stocked with yatai - food stalls selling snacks, drinks, and gifts. One of my favorite parts of sightseeing is taking in as much yatai food as possible, it's usually pretty cheap and just plain fun to eat.

The other thing about Minou that really got me wanting to check it out is the monkeys. I've been here in Japan over two years now, and I haven't seen any of the notorious wild monkeys. My friends told me the park is full of them; but once we got there and didn't see any, they changed to being a lucky encounter. Leaving the park without seeing any monkeys, I was rather crestfallen. That's when we saw them - right as the sun was setting and we were winding down the mountain road out of the park. They were just sitting on the curb, some were even in the street. We pulled up next to a few to get some pictures, but I was really nervous about rolling the window down. I kept visualizing the monkey freaking out because of the flash, then jumping into the window in a fit of rage. Luckily, I managed to snap off one decent shot with the window down. Enjoy - my wild monkey encounter!