4 June 2016
There are a couple of must-visit places in Kyoto and Arashiyama is one of them. Although it is located a distance away from the central of Kyoto, access to Arashiyama is easy. It is served by 3 train stations (JR, Hankyu and Randen).
As we were staying near Kyoto Station and had bought the Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass, we took the JR train to the JR Saga Arashiyama Station.
The plan is to visit the famous Bamboo Grove and Tenryu-ji temple in the morning, have lunch at the Unagiya Hirokawa restaurant and then probably go see the Kinkaku-ji Temple in the afternoon. It was best to go see the Bamboo Forest early in the day to beat the crowds.
Kyoto is very tourist friendly. When we arrived at the Saga Arashiyama Station, there were many signs indicating the way to the temple and the bamboo forest.
There were also signs giving directions to other famous sightseeing spots in Kyoto from this station. Great!
There are many human-powered rickshaws for hire in this area. It would probably cost at least 2000 to 3000 yen per ride.
We saw one just about to start his day along the way.
At 9.45 AM in the morning, the bamboo forest was beginning to get crowded. It was not easy to get photos without someone coming into your shots in the background. Nevertheless, it was a nice walk through the bamboo forest, with the morning sun filtering through the leaves above.
It was quite fun trying to get photos and selfies in this amazing place.
For fun, I took some shots using the built-in fish eye lens of my Canon G5X.
We paid 500 Yen to enter the garden of the Tenryu-ji (天龍寺) Temple through its north entrance. Tenryū-ji was ranked first among Kyoto’s five great Zen temples, and is now registered as a UNESCO world heritage site. The entrance led us to the temple’s garden and it is spring flowers galore. The flowers coming into season in June were the hydrangeas or Ajisai as it is known in Japan.
Besides the blue hydrangeas, there were many other flowers blooming and it was fun photographing the various coloured blooms, some with interesting shapes and configuration.
This place would be awesome in autumn but spring was also a good time to take photos of green leaves.
Our admission ticket did not include entrance into the buildings (need to pay 100 Yen more for that) but it was the garden that we came to see.
After seeing the flowers in the garden, we found ourselves at the Sogenchi Teien (Sogen Pond Garden).
The Sogenchi Garden employs “borrowed scenery” concept in which nearby views of the nearby mountains are blended into the garden design to give the garden a sense of added depth. There were seats at the buildings for visitors to rest and appreciate the beauty of the pond and garden.
We left the garden via the same gate that we entered from, i.e. the north gate. It seems Arashiyama is becoming like Tokyo’s Akihabara or Harajuku. We met several folks in cosplay costumes, happy to pose with visitors who were eager to snap photos with them.
From there, we went to have lunch at the Unagiya Hirokawa restaurant, located near the entrance to the bamboo forest. We were hoping to beat the crowd but there was already a queue outside although it was only 11.30 AM. We waited for about an hour before we were led to a nice table by the window.
Unagiya Hirokawa restaurant is supposed to be a one-star Michelin rated and specialises in eel or unagi dishes. We ordered sets which came with appetisers, sashimi, soup and unagi on rice.
The meal was well presented and delicious. Well worth the one hour wait.
It was quite interesting to walk around and explore the area around Arashiyama. There would be the typical stores selling souvenirs, food, ice-cream and crafts.
We went to check out a store selling craft, made out of silk worm cocoon casings. Quite delicate and beautiful handicraft pieces that was not cheap and probably very fragile to buy and bring home.
Besides the JR train station that we came from, there is another train station in Arashiyama called the Randen Arashiyama Station that was operated by a private railway company.
There is a display of “kimono forest” inside the station, plus food stores.
The small trains on the Keifuku Arashiyama Line ran from this station to the Omiya Station in central Kyoto.
Another attraction in Arashiyama is the Togetsukyo Bridge. The wooden bridge spans the Katsura River in front of Arashiyama Mountain. Another train station (Hankyu) is located across this bridge as well as the Iwatayama monkey park.
We saw more of the cosplay folks at the park on the bank of the river.
We did not hike the 30 to 40 minutes uphill trail to get to the monkey park, where wild monkeys wait to be fed by visitors from behind cages. Instead we walked back to the JR Saga Arashiyama Station to catch the train.
Next stop would be the Kinkaku-ji Temple.
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