Wandering Fel

The stall sells pretty extensive menu despite its size. For colder days, you can buy hot sweet sake or hot ginger lemon. Both drinks are sold at 300 JPY. 

If you are looking for snacks, the stall also have it. The dango (re: green Japanese dumpling and sweet made from mochi) looks pretty good *drool*.

There are so many variety of snacks offered by the snack stall, I had difficulty choosing one...

...and ended up with a cone of soft served ice cream. We ordered the four-in-one ice cream so that we could taste all the flavours offered by the stall. Talk about being greedy...hehe. The ice cream flavours are pretty interested. The bottom one is vanilla (hidden beneath the cone), matcha (green tea), sesame and sweet potato. The only flavor that I have never tried before is the sweet potato and wow, it tastes yummy. To be honest, everything in Japan tastes yummy except wasabi because I don't really like the sting feeling that I got when tasting wasabi. Hahaha.

If you are visiting Arashiyama in spring, the neighborhood is filled with pretty flowers and this does not include only sakura. There is this cute purple flower which I never see before. So lovely!

And a lot of violets too. I seldom see violet in Indonesia and Singapore so it's really nice to meet them here at Arashiyama. 

If you have not had your lunch yet, you can have a vegetarian Buddhist meal at a restaurant inside Tenryuji Temple called Shingetsu. This restaurant is pretty famous and I have read a lot of review on Tripadvisor about it. 

The area in front of Tenryuji Temple is free to roam about. However, if you would like to enter the temple and the beautiful Hojo garden inside the temple, you have to visit the admission ticket office, which location is shown by the red arrow. 

The admission to Tenryuji Temple and Hojo Garden costs 500 JPY. We did not really have much time to explore so we gave this a miss. If you have chance to explore the temple, you should give it a visit as it's not everyday you can visit the biggest Japanese zen Buddhist temple. 

A section of the temple which I don't really know because my ability to read traditional Chinese character (which is similar to Japanese kanji) is limited. 

The main entrance of Tenryuji Temple. Tenryuji is the head temple of its own school within the Rinzai Zen sect of Japanese Buddhism. It is considered a hard work to preserve the main temple buildings of Tenryuji because history says that Tenryuji's buildings were repeatedly lost in fires and wars over the centuries. Kudos to the Japanese people to restore the temple again and again. 

If you'd like to take a closer look at the mountain, you need to cross the river via Togetsukyo Bridge. The river at the right and left side of the bridge apparently is named differently. The east of the bridge is named Katsura River while the west of the bridge is called Hozu River. 

Right in the middle of Togetsukyo Bridge, you should see both side of the river as they give you a completely different scenery. The west side shows a riverbank which is flowing through the neighbourhood of Arashiyama. 

While the other side gives you the scenic view of the Arashi Mountain. If only we came a week later, the mountain will be so pretty in pink. Oh well. 

Once we have crossed Togetsukyo Bridge, we have arrived at Arashiyama Park. A lot of people are enjoying a walk in the park especially when the weather is good. Japanese is good at maintaining cleanliness and obviously all parks in Japan will be pristinely clean. 

If you want to visit attractions which are located near to the Arashi mountain, you can take a lot of buses from the bus stop at the main street right beside the park. Iwatayama Monkey Park and Horinji Temple are some of the attractions located at the slope of Arashiyama. 

We did not really have time to go to those attractions, so we walked back to the other side of Togetsukyo Bridge and started our leisure stroll along the neighbourhood. We saw a bunch of sakura flowers tied to the electric pole. It kinda piqued our curiosity. 

There are a lot of papers tied to the branches of the flower. They are probably the paper wishes which the Japanese like to tie to the tree whenever they are making a wish. I'm just guessing though. Hahaha.

If you can't really walk that far, you can always opt to ride the rickshaw instead. The Japanese men who pull the rickshaw are mostly looking quite hot and muscular. I suppose a lot of energy and muscle strength are required to carry that rickshaw plus 2 passengers. The person who pull the rickshaw will also act as tour guide. I notice that most of them are happily explaining about the history of Arashiyama while pulling the rickshaw.

The problem is, I don't think these men can speak fluent English. Most of them who were chatting with the passengers are speaking mainly in Japanese. If you don't understand what they are talking about, at least you can still enjoy the scenery while occasionally take a peek at those muscles pulling your rickshaw. =P

Arashiyama Bamboo Path is one of the most photographed places in the city of Kyoto. There is this feeling of stepping into a different world when you are walking into the path of bamboo. The weather was pretty good back then on a spring day and that helps in creating the atmosphere. 

Although the thing about wandering into Arashiyama Bamboo Path on a Saturday is there will be a lot of other people do the wandering with you and hence, taking a clear shot along the path is proven to be challenging. Unless you are willing to climb further (yes, the path goes uphill). Is this where the saying "no pain, no gain" coming from?

My friend took a shot of one side of the bamboo path. I guess you really need to take a picture of the path with both sides because one side is merely not gonna cut it. It kinda looks like a normal bamboo forest. Hahaha. 

There is a peace pole at the junction inside Arashiyama Bamboo Path. It shows the wish for world peace. I really wish it comes true even though it is very very unlikely. Let's just be grateful for peaceful days while they last. 

Deeper inside the bamboo path, the bamboo forest gets thicker and this is where the amazing shots of the path are taken. We have to lift up our camera a bit because the path below is totally swarmed with human. 

I guess you may want to avoid weekends or school holidays to enjoy walking in Arashiyama Bamboo Path on a less crowded setting. If you have no choice but to travel on busy times, you can climb up further inside because I'm quite sure the crowd will be thinner there. =P

Have you ever seen a roll made into a chick? And these chicks are cute up to the level I don't think I have the heart to eat them. Okay, probably I won't even open the box. #ijustcant

If you are not really into food, there are tons of souvenirs sold at these stores. For instance, there is this handphone accessories in the form of Japanese kimono. All kind of color and patterns for your choice. 

A medium-sized Kokeshi (re: wooden Japanese dolls). The Kokeshi(s) have similar hairstyles but they are wearing different kind of kimono. At least different in color and patterns. 

Don't even talk about animals. Whatever kind of decoration made resembling an animal looks super duper cute. Cats? Rabbits? Even pigs and toads are cute! #justtakemymoney

I nearly carry the fake plant with a toad couple home but my friend kicked some sense into me. I suppose this may be a tad difficult to carry around as we are going to visit several cities in Japan and Arashiyama is just our first stop, for goodness sake. 

I think before I know it, I have spent quite a while coming in and out of these stores. If you like window shopping (or real shopping), do allocate some time to browse and shop as the number of stores like above is countless in Arashiyama. XD

The moment we exited the station, we saw a huge steam train. Behind the train lies a piano museum. If you are wondering why there are so many museums right at the exit of Saga-Arashiyama station, well, Arashiyama district is known for its popularity amongst tourists, both local and international. We did not really have time for museum visits, so we just simply passed these by. 

From Saga-Arashiyama station, you need to walk in the neighbourhood for at least 10 to 15 minutes to reach the main attractions of Arashiyama i.e. Arashiyama Mountain, Arashiyama Bamboo Groove and Tenryu-ji Temple. 

If you visit Arashiyama in spring, you can see most of the sakura flowers blooming. We came too early for sakura sighting in Kyoto but oh well, I don't mind looking at the early stage of sakura season. Hahaha. 

Once you reach the main street of Arashiyama, you will see shops both on your left and right side. Oh there is something unique about this umbrella shop that I stumbled upon. 

These three umbrellas have magic. Those sakura patterns that you see will only appear when the umbrellas are wet. When they are dry, the umbrellas look plain. I know this sounds like a tourist trap but I am one of those trapped tourists. The small pink sakura umbrella costs approximately SGD 13 (USD 9). 

There are a lot of cute things that can make you go crazy sold at these shops around Arashiyama. So if you have a soft spot for cute stuff, I hope you carry enough Japanese Yen with you.