Arashiyama
Arashiyama is a region of west Kyoto with many temples, shrines and other attractions. It’s a great day trip from central Kyoto as it’s reachable by bus or train in under an hour.
We decided to take a wandering approach to Arashiyama having visited the touristy section around Tenryu-ji (a large Zen temple complex) in the past. Instead we started at further north in Arashiyama and did a fun, peaceful, interesting, less traveled walk from north to south, ending at Tenryu-ji. See map showing highlighted locations below.
We took the 91 bus to the Saga Shakado-mae stop in Arashiyama. We then set out on what would be a 15 minute walk without stopping to Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple.
Almost immediately, we stopped at tofu factory called the Sagatofu Morika company (product page – use google translate). Workers there were pressing, cutting and frying big blocks of tofu. Although it’s mostly a wholesale shop, they have an entrance where locals would come by to buy soy milk and various tofu dishes. We each got a tasty tofu ball stuffed with lily bulb and ginkgo nuts (300 yen) and a big bottle of soymilk to drink alongside (580 yen).
Next we walked to Seiryo-ji temple. Also known as Saga Shaka-dō, it’s a Pure Land (aka Amidism, one of the most dominant Buddhist sects in East Asia) temple and follows the Yuzu Nembutsu school, which focuses on recitation of the Nembutsu, the name of the Amitabh Buddha. The grounds are lovely and you can visit a small museum and garden as well as other parts of the temple for a 500 yen fee. One of the buildings has speakers constantly playing the recitation of the Nembutsu.
We then walked along Saga Toriimoto Preserved Street to reach the Adashino Nenbutsuji temple. Before COVID this was apparently a bustling street of shops and restaurants. Now, it’s a quiet street with many beautiful residences, but very few shops or restaurants and a lot of ‘for rent’ signs. Nevertheless, there are enough shops and restaurant to recommend a visit and hopefully more shops and restaurants will return.
We then arrived at Adashino Nenbutsuji temple. There’s a 500 yen entry fee to explore the grounds, cemetery, shrines and a bamboo path that leads up to a second cemetery. There are also some nice views of greater Kyoto as this is one of the higher points of the city.
From there, we backtracked along Saga Toriimoto street, stopped at a curry restaurant for a quick lunch (Senou) (it was cheap and pretty good), and turned towards Nison-in Temple (500 yen admission). We decided not to go in but continue along a small path past the temple, passing a few shops (selling bamboo items and pottery). There are several other temples you can visit as you walk along this path including Jojakko-ji and Mikami-jinja (a shrine dedicated to hairdressing and beauty). The path is well sign-posted to direct you towards these and other sights. As you work your way further south, there will be many more tourists, until you finally arrive at the north gate of Tenryu-ji.
Seek out the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest by turning right at the north gate (there will also be signs on the path) which is a small forest of temple bamboo towering overhead. If it’s windy, you can hear the bamboo trunks clacking against each other.
From there we walked to Sagatenryuji dori, past many touristy shops and restaurants (we did stop for dango at one food shop!) and the front of Tenryu-ji. From there, we took the Randen electric train back to central Kyoto.
Getting there: there are several ways to get to Arashiyama – the Randen electric train which terminates at Arashiyama, the JR train to Saga Arashiyama station, several different buses (depending on where you start in the city) or walking. Google maps provides multiple and pretty accurate options, so just plug in your destination to get tailored routes.
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