Japan 2019 Trip Day 11: Kyoto Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kinkakuji, and Yasaka Shrine
View through the entrance of Yasaka Shrine
Kyoto
[Introduction]
Today will be a long day trip to Kyoto, with us waking up super early around 4.45am to bath, prepare, and travel from Osaka to Kyoto. For this day trip, we will be visiting the Arashiyama area, Kinkakuji, and Yasaka Shrine.
[Trip Report]
Day 1: Explore around Nagano
Day 2: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route
Day 3: Matsumoto Castle, Nakamachi District, Matsumoto City Museum of Art and night exploring around Nagano
Day 4: Nagano Zenkoji Temple and Kanazawa Higashi Chaya District
Day 5: Shirakawago
Day 6: Hida-Takayama, Hida-Furukawa, and “Your Name” location spots
Day 7: Kanazawa Omicho Market, Kenrokuen Garden, and Kanazawa Castle Park
Day 8: Explore around Osaka
Day 9: Osaka Shinsekai, Tempozan Ferris Wheel, Glion Museum, and Cosmo Tower Observatory
Day 10: Osaka Castle, Gozabune Boat, HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel, and Kuchu Teien Observatory
Day 11: Kyoto Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kinkakuji, and Yasaka Shrine [current post]
Day 12: Osaka Dotonbori, Kaiyukan, and Shinsekai
Day 13: Kyoto Fushimi Inari, Ginkakuji, and Arashiyama
Day 14: Okayama Korakuen, Okayama Castle, and Kojima Jeans Street
Day 15: Miyajima
Day 16: Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Peace Memorial Museum
Day 17: Yufuin
Day 18: Hakata Ohori Park, Fukuoka Castle Ruins, and Fukuoka Tower
Day 19: Nanzoin Temple
[Travel Date]
2019-10-27 to 2019-11-14
Absolutely beautiful sunrise at Shin-Osaka Station
Osaka
NOZOMI 200 Shinkansen
Osaka
NOZOMI 200 Shinkansen taking off
Osaka
You must be wondering why are we watching the NOZOMI 200 taking off? Cause we are using the nationwide JR Pass and NOZOMI trains are not covered by that, so there you go.
Digital train signage board - Our train is coming in at 6:08am
Osaka
HIKARI 504 Shinkansen
Osaka
HIKARI, the next fastest train in this region is covered in the nationwide JR Pass, this will be the train which we will be taking to Kyoto.
Couple photo at Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Kyoto
[Arashiyama Bamboo Grove]
Upon reaching Kyoto Station on HIKARI 504, we will need to switch to a local train and travel to JR Saga-Arashiyama Station, after that it will be around 15 minutes walk to the Arashiyama bamboo grove.
Upon reaching the bamboo grove we managed to find a spot with a lesser crowd to take our couple photo at the iconic tourist’s spot.
Even though we took one of the earliest trains (that are covered by nationwide JR Pass) into Kyoto from Osaka, but there’s already some crowd at the spot.
Mainly due to we went towards the wrong direction at the start which cost us an important 20+ minutes, if not for this mistake it could be a minimal crowd at the iconic photo spot I guess.
Didn’t take much photos of the bamboo grove itself, cause I am too darn tired from the lack of sleep/waking up early.
Signage direction to Tenryu-ji 天龍寺 north entrance
Kyoto
[Tenryu-ji 天龍寺]
We only spent a short time at Tenryu-ji, because we are going for our brunch at Shoraian which is a famous Tofu Kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto…NOT…today!
Due to our booking didn’t get registered, which I asked one of my Japanese speaking friends to help with the reservation (as phone reservation is the only option and Japanese speaking staff only), but I think the restaurant staff did not get the voice message.
But fortunately, we managed to secure a lunch timeslot for 2 days later at the restaurant itself, so that’s all good, just need to move around our plans for today and the next few days.
Tenryu-ji 天龍寺
Kyoto
Tenryu-ji 天龍寺
Kyoto
%Arabica - Kyoto Arashiyama
Kyoto
[Coffee at %Arabica Kyoto Arashiyama]
%Arabica Kyoto Arashiyama is located at one of the most scenic spots in Arashiyama, at least for us as tourists. It is overlooking Katsura River and Togetsukyo Bridge, where you can enjoy your coffee and take in the scenery.
TLDR; great coffee and located at a scenic area!
Do click on the link for the detailed review and photos.
Cafe Latte Single Origin (Tall)
Kyoto
Wifey relaxing at the riverside with the %Arabica coffee
Kyoto
Katsura River
Kyoto
[Arashiyama & Katsura River]
Relaxing and peaceful walk around the Katsura River because it is still rather early so not that much crowd yet.
Sound of the river, light wind breeze, good weather, seeing the gradual colour changes around the environment.
This touristy area without huge crowds + good weather and season = really great feeling!
Change of season
Kyoto
Arashiyama
Kyoto
Main pathway along the Katsura River
Kyoto
Forest walkway to Shoraian 松籟庵
Kyoto
Rickshaws and rickshaw runners at Arashiyama
Kyoto
Unloading of goods
Kyoto
Keifuku Randen Tram Line
Kyoto
Keifuku Randen Tram Line
Kyoto
[Kimono Forest]
Kimono Forest is just beside Keifuku Arashiyama Station, you definitely can’t miss it.
Took some photos of wife at Kimono Forest, although it will be nicer and of a different feel at night as all the kimono pillars will light up after nightfall.
Next time we will do that!
Wifey at Kimono Forest
Kyoto
Ryu no Atago
Kyoto
Paper Windmills
Kyoto
Catching em’ all the autumn colours in Kyoto!
Kyoto
Shogetsu 嘯月
Kyoto
[Snack takeaway at Shogetsu 嘯月]
Took a bus from Arashiyama over to the area Shogetsu is in, that’s about an hour trip.
From our initial experience, we felt that Kyoto is generally not that connected by trains, and mainly by bus thus the long travel time in the city itself.
But I digress, Shogetsu; a namagashi restaurant awarded with multiple foodie award throughout the years, definitely a must-try for us!
But Shogetsu is strictly by phone reservation only, and that means you need to be able to converse in Japanese for the reservation. Thus, we had to trouble our friend to help us do the ordering through the phone (thanks again!).
TLDR; one of the best traditional Namagashi in Japan
Do click on the link for the detailed review and photos.
Shogetsu 嘯月
Kyoto
Kinkakuji 金閣寺
Kyoto
[Kinkakuji 金閣寺]
Kinkakuji aka Golden Pavillion; one of the main attractions in Kyoto, what else we need to say.
You can read more of the history on its official website.
It was a super peak and crowded day/time when we are there, we can even see a dozen tour buses at the car park before we went in.
Didn’t have a good experience here, not due to the attraction itself, but the overwhelming crowd. It is just bumping around, rowdy people, and overall it is like following a guided line to view this attraction.
It just doesn’t do this attraction justice, will definitely come back here in the early morning next time to fully experience it.
Kinkakuji 金閣寺
Kyoto
Roof tiles
Kyoto
Direction to proceed
Kyoto
Grey Heron?
Kyoto
Top tier of Kinkakuji 金閣寺
Kyoto
[Starbucks Reserve Kyoto Sanjo Ohashi]
From Kinkakuji we took a bus back to Kyoto city area to Starbucks Reserve Kyoto Sanjo Ohashi which is just beside the Sanjo Bridge.
This Starbucks store is beautiful and unique, it is overlooking the Kamogawa River, and there’s also an outdoor deck to use during warmer weather. This area was also used as a scene in one of the Detective Conan (名探偵コナン) movies too, although no Starbucks in the movie, but you can know it is that area.
We had a good time having the awesome Shogetsu namagshi with nice scenery of the Kamogawa River.
You can see photos of it from other sites like this and this.
Click the link for the detailed review of Shogetsu.
Night street scene in Kyoto
Kyoto
Oden stall at Yasaka Shrine
Kyoto
Not much ingredients left as it near the closing time
Kyoto
[Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社]
After the yummy snack time, we walked around from Sanjo Bridge to Gion area (at that point I am already very exhausted thus did not take any photos), and then walked to Yasaka Shrine.
We didn’t even explore Yasaka Shrine much at all other than trying to take it slow and spending time setting up the tripod and taking photos of the entrance through the street view. At the very least, I do quite like the outcome of the photos of shooting the Kyoto street area through Yasaka Shrine’s entrance.
View through the entrance of Yasaka Shrine
Kyoto
Ekiben
Osaka
[Takeaway dinner at Kyoto Station Ekiben]
Actually, we wanted to try a popular ramen stall in Kyoto for dinner, but upon reaching there it has a long queue as expected since it was peak dinner time.
But we had a long and tiring day, instead of queueing we decided to just head back to Kyoto station to take the Shinkansen back to Osaka.
So for convenience sake, we bought ekibens for dinner at Kyoto station. Out of numerous times we bought ekiben most are of decent quality, but these 2 ekibens doesn’t make the grade.
Ekiben
Osaka
[Closing]
If any, we learned one life lesson today. In our opinion to fully enjoy Kyoto AND also do serious photography without much crowd (at touristy spots), these are some tips we have for you:
If possible do your hotel stays in Kyoto, so you can have more rest and time saving compared to doing day trip(s) in.
Choose the main attraction which you want to enjoy and do serious photography as the very first itinerary of the day and going in at their opening time. So you can have the least possible crowd and still have nice morning light. For example, if you want to visit and shoot both Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji, it will have to be on 2 different mornings. Then the least priority attractions or areas you want to visit can be after that, which you don’t mind having lots of crowds in your photos or you purely just want to explore and not to take serious photos of it.
Exploring Kyoto will be lots of walking and time spent on travelling between point A to point B, as attractions are located rather far from each other and you will be tired. What I am trying to say is, try to buffer more time in Kyoto for sightseeing that you normally would. We walked 30k steps today which is approximately 24km just for your information. Unless you have the budget for taking taxis around, that will cut down a lot of transport time and reduce your exhaustion. It might be a decent option if you are travelling in a group of 4.
These will be the end of Day 11, tomorrow we will be back exploring Osaka’s Dotonbori, Kaiyukan, and Shinsekai.
[Buy Me A Coffee]
Greatly appreciate any digital-tips (click the button below) if you find my blog articles helpful, and to support our efforts and operational costs (to keep this site ad-free).