Visiting Arashiyama, Kyoto

Asako Inoue |

By Obubu Intern, Suin Angie

You should have heard that this week we are going to Arashiyama for a new event from Tuesday to Sunday! Of course, we will tell you everything about this, posting awesome pictures next week!   But Obubu intern’s blog is not only Obubu’s events, but also about the Japanese culture in general. That’s why I wanted to talk about Arashiyama because it’s a famous place here, in the Kansai.

It’s near to Kyoto and you can easily go there taking the train at the Kyoto station. The word Arashiyama means literally “Storm Mountain”, it’s known for its “sakura” (cherry blossom), on spring and its “momiji”, (Japanese) maple on autumn. The main attraction of the area is, without any doubt, the “Togetsukyô” (渡月橋). The Togetsukyô is a wood bridge crossing the Hozu River which become the Katsura River at this place. Togetsukyô means “the bridge that goes through the moon”. As activity, you can shoot the rapids on boats made with traditional wood. It will take you 2 hours to do 16km of the river. The departure is at Kameoka station.

You can also discover the river by a train called Torokko (トロッコ), nicknamed the “romantic train” in English. The departure is at Saga-arashiyama with the Sagano Kankô Tetsudô Company. You will go through the mountains and then go down the river.

You’ll find at Arashiyama some temples as the Hôriji (with a beautiful view of Kyoto from there), the Daikaku-ji (famous for his pond during the spring and his Koto concert on autumn) and finally the Tenryû-ji (his pond has the shape of the kanji of the heart (心, こころ).

Finally, one another famous place is the “Iwata-yama”, where you can easily observe a hundred monkeys. It’s advisable to not give them food, they can become aggressive.

Arashiyama is not very known by the foreign tourists so if you want to join us on this week or just visit here are some informations about how to get there:

You have to take on Karasuma line the train for kokusai kaikan and change at shijo. Then, you’ll have to walk until the karasuma station and take the train for Umeda. At Katsura station, it’s the hankyu arashiyama line that you’ll need to take and the train for Arashiyama will take you to your destination.

This post originally appeared on http://obubutea.com/5181/arashiyama/

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