Day 21 November 1st 2015
Very early start – for us – up at 6am and off to Arashiyama to see the Bamboo Forest before the crowds arrived.
On arrival we found our way to the forest, hoping for breakfast on the way but little was open in the early hours. The bonus was that we had the forest too ourselves, beautiful. A complete contrast to a return visit out of curiosity at 11am when you could hardly move for people and the forest was one of selfie sticks not bamboo.
After the forest we went looking for breakfast – still not much open but we found a small cafe in a side street. This cafe was run by a friendly helpful couple there was a small menu serving mainly Takoyaki “octopus balls”.A favourite of Chris’s. In the spirit of my new ‘Don’t be fussy find something wherever you are” I could not come at Octopus ball and opted for fried rice. In the tiny spot seating maybe maximum 10 people we met a Canadian couple over a song playing on the radio and had quite a chat.
Sometimes in travelling life you miss things. Well in hindsight we probably did with Tenryu-ji temple a quick walk through and later research shows we missed much of it. Somewhere here we were told that the Okochi-Sanso villa was well worth a visit so we headed for there.
Okochi-Sanso villa built by an actor and despite websites complaining about the entrance fee it was indeed worth a visit. The gardens were beautiful, the surroundings serene.
Holly had sent an instagram photo before we left of a coffee shop in Kyoto. As we walked along the river I remarked that a building up ahead looked like that photo but this was out of Kyoto. We wandered up and sure enough – a perfect little coffee shop with a barrista owner who had worked in Melbourne. % Percentage coffee. Beautifully branded, simple. Great coffee, beautiful coffee shop. Happy us.
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji – often referred to as the temple no-one has heard of. Well I had heard of it and really really wanted to go. Not easy to find we ended up with a short cab ride and even when dropped off we were not sure we were at the place. We found the entrance and once inside found a wonderful peaceful visit, no other visitors and many hundreds of buddha-like statues made in the 1970s and displaying many emotions and activities.
We decided to walk back down the hill to the township. On the way we came upon another temple we had read about and made a detour. Adashino-Nembutsu-ji temple – 8000 tiny Buddha statues for people who have died without kin. No photos were allowed. It was moving to see all those tiny statues an think what it represented.
We continued to walk through old streets complete with older dwellings. Til finally we made it to a small rail station – that turned out to be a tram!!
The station was complete with art show. A Kimono art exhibition at the back exit to the station.