Monday 27th July 2009 – Kyoto and the Bamboo Forest

A day of adventure! Just Iris, Gary and I on our own trying to find our way to the Bamboo Forest. We bought tickets for Saga Arashigama Station at Kyoto and boarded an express train. 4 stops that should be easy! Well it should have been if we hadn’t been talking and I only noticed the station as we pulled out of it. Ah well, off at the next station. As the train pulled in, stopped and the doors opened we all jumped out only to realise the “station” consisted of a concrete slab on each side of the line and nothing else. The line went across a deep valley at this point with a fast flowing river running through it.

View from the train on the Sagano Line

We swiftly hopped back on board. The next station was some way down the line through some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen in my life (and a couple of very long tunnels!) This line is called the “Romantic Train Sagano Line”. We got off at the next station which was a town, crossed the line and got the next riain back to Arashigama. We got pointed in the direction of the Bamboo forest by one of the locals and quickly found ourselves on the path.

It was absolutely amazing. A whole forest of bamboo as tall as trees. We noticed the cicadas didn’t seem to be inside the bamboo, only in the trees, so it was quite quiet. 

As we walked up the path we came across the entrance to another temple, Ten Ryuji Temple. It looked unobtrusive and insignificant but as the entrance fee was only 400 yen we went in  in any case.

What a find! The most beautiful Zen Gardens, with a huge lake full of koi, gravel garden and wonderful paths and nooks and crannies. We paid an extra 100 yen to get into the temple itself which was just as peaceful and lovely and afforded us wonderful views over the lake.

Ten-ryu-ji Temple

Ten-ryu-ji Temple

Tenryu-ji Temple

After visiting the temple we continued along the bamboo pat to Okochi Sanso villa. Again what an amazing find; beautiful gardens and views. 

Oh-Kohchi Sanso Villa

Oh-Kohchi Sanso Villa

Oh-Kohchi Sanso villa

An uneventful journey back to Kyoto saw me back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.

We ate out at a beautiful restaurant on the top floor of what looked like a department store. It was a very “posh” restaurant. Afterwards we were met by a man called Peter Lawrance who is married to an ex Geisha. He took us on a guided tour of the Gion Geisha area and then into the Mujagawa area. Here we were ushered into what appeared to be a private house where we made our way upstairs to be greeted by a wonderful youn Maiko called Fukokimi. She was such a young thing, only 17. She poured us drinks let us ask her questions and finally did a dance for us. No-one in the party could believe it. It was such a surprise and an honour. We returned to the hotel still buzzing from the experience.