Our last day in Kyoto was a bright sunny day, perfect for our Arashiyama trip. It was probably the least stressful, most chillax day we had despite the long walk – pretty much because we didn’t have time pressure. It’s day 4 of our Osaka-Kyoto and I was on tipid-mode already coz I want to still eat some good food (less shopping)…so we had to be choiceful of the tours we take and the temples we go to.
From Tambaguchi station, Saga-Arashiyama station is about 40mins train ride away. The other option is to go back to Kyoto Station and take the JR line which is also about 45mins away. We had a full breakfast at the station, far from our normal bread or noodle breakfast food c/o 7-11 or Family Mart.

Arashiyama offers a lot more than its famous Bamboo groves yet we decided to still stick to the plan, i.e. just to see the Bamboo forest. It was still a good decision so because apart from the fact that we saved a bit of money from not going to the Tenryuji temple and taking the Sagano scenic train ride, the Bamboos and the Arashiyama forest were more than enough to tour for half the day.
The bamboo forest is about 10mins away from the Saga-Arashiyama station. We found some bike rentals on the way but I forgot why we didn’t try to rent one…hmmmm.
Then it was time to see the real bamboo forest trail…*click*click*click*





After that long trail of the bamboo forest, I though we were already done for the day…but there is yet another trail/hike going out of the forest and to the Togetsukyo bridge.
We were greeted by a full army of orange trees on our way out of the forest…if one is still not convinced that autumn is the best season ever…


You know you’re out of the forest if you see loads of tourists already…and this nice cozy restaurant beside the river.




…then it was time for lunch…I had takoyaki once again and the best chicken yakitori to date!, so I had a second round. ^_^

We retired early and was already home by around 4pm…
..couldn’t resist trying their starbucks coffee so we had to McDonalds for dinner to compensate going over budget on snacks and dinner.

Day 4 – Itinerary