Arashiyama 嵐山, Japan Trip (Day 4)

7th March 2017, Tuesday

Today, we were going to Arashiyama.....finally a new place for me...We woke up early and got ready for our adventure. We headed down to Kyoto train station, it was super cold (Some areas of Kyoto were still snowing) and there was light rain. I wanted to have ramen for breakfast in Istean's ramen street. But we were too early and all the restaurants were not opened yet. So we ended up in one of the bakery and had some breads. I bought a small rice sushi and a hot chocolate for my breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to the train platform to board the San-Li JR train.The train was also crowded and we had to take to the 6th or 7th stop. Once the train arrived in Arashiyma, a lot of people alighted too. It was freezing cold and strong winds were blowing. My pants were dropping too as it was big in size and i didn't put on my belt....regretted didn't bring along my belt... :P
Anyhow, we walked down the street to Tenryu-ji Temple (Tian Long Shi), which was ranked first among of the 5 Zen temples in Arashiyama and it was registered as a world's heritage site too. The entrance fees consists of visiting the temple alone or it can be combined with the garden walk too. We bought the entrance fees for both the temple and garden. We had to change our shoes for slippers to walk in the temple's grounds.

We could see the pond and mountains from the temple, it was super quiet and peaceful. (I enjoyed the peace there... :) ) We spent some time enjoying the view and peace, the water in the pond looked like it was 'dancing' when the wind blows. Then it suddenly to rain heavily and we had to sit longer on the floor for the rain to stop. But it was really cold and the wind kept blowing. Once we saw the rain lighten, we quickly changed our shoes and went to the garden to have the walk. We managed to see two sakura trees in the garden, one was having white flowers and one was having pink flowers. Many people crowded around the trees to get nice pictures with the trees. We walked through the temple ground and walked into the bamboo grove, which was located at the other entrance of the temple ground.

We walked and took pictures in the famous bamboo grove and there were many people wearing kimonos. There was even a couple taking their wedding photos there. With the wind blowing, we could hear the sound of the wind and the bamboo trees were swaying. Don't know why...i find the sound of the wind very pleasant and made me very peaceful and calm...(although i was thinking on my unfinished assignments, totally put at the back of my mind....hahaha).  While we were walking up the road, i saw a kid eating a hot sausage and turned to my two friends that i want to eat the sausage too..hahahaa...One of my friends said i had to walk to the other end to buy it....sooo hungry.... -_-....
We continued walked till we reached one of the scenic railway station, where there were some food stalls. And one of the stalls was selling hot hot sausages...so we bought one for each of us...soo nice to have something hot in cold weather. We also bought one hot sweet potato to eat...

After resting there, we continued to explore the area and saw orange trees in one of the houses. There was one small shrine (Mikami Shrine) we came across too, it seemed to be worshiping a god of hair...I saw some wishes by other people on the wishes boards, they were wishing to have more and healthier hairs. And the temple charms selling were mini combs...quite interesting (who would thought there is a god for healthy hairs)...hehehe....After that, we continued walking the road and we ended up to the main street while finding Togetsukyo Bridge. There were many people and there were trishaw pullers on the roads. There were many shops and food too. As it was around 2 plus, so we decided to get lunch.

Mikami Shrine

Trishaw

We stumbled upon a restaurant named Saga Tofu Ine, which was showcasing their popular items and interestingly, the food was all made of soya tufu. Each of us ordered 3 different sets so that we can try the different sets. Surprisingly, the food was quite nice and the tofu was very smooth. There was even two different types of desserts in the sets. But the whole set doesn't have any meat inside, so meat-lovers people may not like it...hehehe....After lunch, we went out to the streets for adventures again...
We went shopping in the shops (played a lot gashapon machines and collected stations chops), also saw Togetsukyo Bridge from a distance but we got lazy to walk to the other side of the bridge. There was a mountain opposite the river and the water was flowing from the bridge. There was a long queue at a small shop, selling coffee and the coffee smell was aromatic.

Saga Tofu Ine Menu

Arashiyama Set

Saga Set

Soya Milk Obanzai Set

Ice Cream

Togetsukyo Bridge

However, the sky was turning dark too and it was like only around 5 plus. So we decided to go back to Kyoto. Along the way back to the station, I saw people queuing to buy snacks so i decided to try it. We bought from 2 stalls which were having longer queues, and we walked back to the station while snacking. Then we took the train back to Kyoto station and went back to Istean basement to buy snow crabs for dinner when we arrived. But we didn't find snow crabs there (sadzzz)..so we bought salmon, fruits and some chicken wings back to the hotel.

These are niceeee...

We took turns to shower, then we just on the tv and had our dinner. I finished the whole packet of salmon as my friends don't really eat raw...The TV programme was something like those TV products advertisements, where you can call the broadcast telephone number and buy the advertised products. The two hosts were promoting Hitachi rice cooker, saying that the rice cooker cooks more rice than normal rice cookers and the technology used was using water as a medium underneath. What's more interesting was that the hosts announced that they were giving 30 bags of rice (amounting to 9kg of rice) if you call and buy the rice cooker...hahahaa...

Salmon

Mixed Fruits

Honey Chicken Wings

Strawberries

After that, it was sleeping time after a day of walking....*Snorezzzz.....


Hotel Stayed:
Hearton Hotel Kyoto