Japan Travels: Arashiyama

#wheretogo Arashiyama is a must visit during a Kyoto travel trip in Japan, it is one of the most famous landmark and a nature paradise to enjoy the beautiful sight. We visited the Arashiyama bamboo forest in the morning around 10am, it’s a 10 minutes walk from the nearest station (Saga-Arashiyama stop). Be sure to reach as early as possible if you want to avoid the massive crowd and have a great photo taking time, it gets pretty crowded after noon. The forest is very zen and beautiful to walk around, we walk through a long path surrounded by bamboos, it was a blessing from mother nature and extremely peaceful, it really calm our body and minds. We walked to the park next to the forest to have a breeze walk. We went to the highest peak of the park where it’s an observation spot to see the most stunning view of the area, it was breathtaking and we stood for a while to enjoy its beauty. As we walked around the streets after the park, there was a huge lily pond full of lilies where it will open on spring/autumn. We also saw a little local pottery store full of tanuki figurines, run by a local Japanese pottery master. He also craft some cute cat figurines and teapots and plates, we ended up buying a cute mini tanuki figurine back. Nearby the place, there is also a local souvenir store where goods and gifts are all handmade, it was done professionally and nicely. A great place for buying souvenirs back home, their chopsticks and straw baskets were very pretty that we bought two to bring back for our families.