Day 6 of 9-day trip to Japan

Today, we took a bus to Arashiyama to see the river, eat, explore the bamboo forest and cycle around the neighbourhood.

The bus ride was uneventful but quite long. We got to the Arashiyama area in time for brunch at a okonomiyaki popular restaurant. Lots of people were looking at their phones, milling around outside, so I guess it’s on a blog somewhere! The food was nice, the place casual, friendly and busy.

We then headed to the bamboo forest, a serene, beautiful place…full of people! Still, it was nice to be there; I love forests! After a few photos, we saw a bicycle rental place with cute, old red bikes.

The price for rental was too cheap to ignore so we did it! We cycled around the neighbourhood looking at the peaceful village of well maintained houses, went past a lake up and down a hill back towards the river, upstream of a famous. There were lots of boats on the river, for couples and groups, plus one that had a traditional performance on it.

After cycling back to the rental place, we walked back to the river area, crossed the famous bridge and looked around. I imagine this place is super popular in the spring when it’s a bit warmer. There are lots of small restaurants, cafes and food stalls. It was very pleasant. After a snack we decided to head back into town.

We headed back across the river and grabbed a quick snack of dumplings before thinking about getting back the city.

On the way to the bus stop, we stopped at a really cool coffee shop called Hirose which I write about in the following post. Back in Kyoto, we explored the are near our Airbnb and found a fantastic sashimi restaurant, also in later post.