Arashiyama Beyond the Bamboo Grove

The grove is a walking path between tall stands of bamboo, running from the area behind Tenryu-ji toward the hills. Walking it takes minutes, not hours. What decides whether it is beautiful or frustrating is almost entirely the time you arrive. Early in the morning you hear the stems creak in the wind; by late morning the same path is a slow line of people holding up phones.

For the family whose question opens this guide, the plan had them at the rock garden of Ryoan-ji just before eight, leaving by half past and reaching the grove before nine. We told them that should still mean lighter crowds, and that the order could be decided on the morning itself with their driver. In the end they were picked up at seven and went to the bamboo first, while the path was still empty, and saw Ryoan-ji afterward.

Tenryu-ji is one of Kyoto's great Zen temples, and its garden, a pond set against the wooded hills behind it, is the calm counterpart to the grove. The two connect: you can walk from the garden toward the bamboo, which makes Tenryu-ji the natural second stop of the morning. The garden opens after the grove's quietest hour has passed, so the order usually decides itself: bamboo first, garden at opening time.

The temple buildings charge a little more on top of the garden ticket. The temple also closes on some dates for its own events, so it is worth checking its website for your day.

This is the part of Arashiyama that the bamboo photo leaves out. The mother whose question opens this guide had drawn up her own list for the day, and the bamboo grove was only the first line of it. The rest read like a walk north: Tenryu-ji's garden, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, the historic street of Saga-Toriimoto, Adashino Nenbutsu-ji, and Gio-ji. It is a very good list.

Gio-ji is a small temple whose garden is a carpet of moss under maple trees, lovely in green summer and in autumn color. Adashino Nenbutsu-ji is known for the thousands of small stone statues gathered in its grounds and for a short, steep path between bamboo at the back that sees far fewer people than the main grove. It is open from 9:00 a.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. in December, January and February), and admission is ¥500 for adults and ¥400 for junior and senior high school students, with younger children free when accompanied by a parent. The temple also closes on days with storm warnings or ice.

Saga-Toriimoto is the old road that runs up past Adashino: wooden townhouses lower down, thatched roofs further up, and very few cars. At its top is Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, whose hillside is covered in more than a thousand carved stone figures, each with its own face, many of them smiling. It is open 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and admission is ¥1,000, and free for children under 10.

Otagi is the stop that needs the most care, because it is closed two days a week. The family with the list visited Arashiyama on a Wednesday, and at nine that morning the mother messaged us from the gate:

It was the one place on her list she had mentioned more than once. If Otagi matters to you, choose the day of the week first and build the morning around it, not the other way round.

Early morning: the grove. Start at the bamboo while it is quiet and take your photos then. This is the only part of the route where the clock really matters.

Mid-morning: Tenryu-ji. Walk into the garden when it opens, and give it the time the grove does not need: a slow lap of the pond and a sit on the veranda.

Late morning: north into Sagano.Take a taxi up to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji on a day it is open, then walk down the old road through Saga-Toriimoto, stopping at Adashino Nenbutsu-ji and its bamboo path, and Gio-ji's moss garden on the way back toward the river.

Lunch. Sagano is known for tofu, simmered as yudofu or served as yuba, and for long, quiet lunches in old houses and temple restaurants. Two of the families below ended their mornings exactly that way. After lunch, the river and Togetsukyo Bridge are an easy place to finish, or the start of an afternoon on the water.

The scenic train runs slowly along the gorge of the Hozu River, with open-sided carriages, and the boats come back down the same river, steered off the rocks by boatmen with long poles. Together they make a half day of their own, and they turn Arashiyama from a morning into a full day.

One family we planned for this summer did exactly that: the rock garden at Ryoan-ji at eight, the 9:02 scenic train, and the long boat ride back to Arashiyama. In the afternoon they climbed to the monkey park on Mt. Iwata in the heat, then changed into kimono for Tenryu-ji's garden and the bamboo grove, with a photographer alongside. The kimono had to be back at the shop before six, which set the pace for the afternoon.

Late June: the early start. The family from the opening of this guide was collected from their hotel at seven, walked the bamboo grove while it was still empty, then saw the rock garden at Ryoan-ji and Togetsukyo Bridge. Otagi Nenbutsu-ji was closed for the day. Lunch was yudofu, served course by course in a private room in Sagano. Read their ten days.

Late May: kimono and tea. On their last morning in Kyoto, another family changed into kimono, sat for a private Zen tea ceremony, then walked the bamboo grove taking photograph after photograph, and ended with a lunch of yuba in Sagano before an afternoon at Nijo Castle. Read their seven days.

Late July: the full day. A third family used Arashiyama as the end point of the scenic train and the river boats, then spent the afternoon in kimono at Tenryu-ji and in the grove, as above.

What the three days have in common is the useful part. Each one fixed the time-sensitive things first, the empty grove, the train, the kimono return, and let the rest fit around them. And the one thing that went wrong, a closed temple, was a matter of the day of the week.

The early pickup, the day of the week, the train seats, the kimono back by six. That is the part of an Arashiyama day we usually take care of. Start a conversation →