One of Kyoto’s most photographed spots, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is exactly what it sounds like – a forest of thousands of towering bamboo plants. A walkway cuts through the middle, creating the famous 400-500 meter “Bamboo Alley”.
We arrived via tram at Arashiyama Station and headed out to the main street. We walked north and followed signs to the Bamboo Grove that led us to enter near Honen-ji Temple. Beautiful pale blue hydrangea lined the path to the grove entrance. Joining the path at this point brings you to a section called Chikurin no Sansakuro (“Bamboo Forest Trail”) that isn’t quite as pristine as further up. Some other trees are interspersed with the bamboo, the bamboo isn’t as densely packed, and power lines run along one side of the path.
But as we kept walking the bamboo became denser and the power lines ended. We continued along the path until we reached Tenryu-ji Temple. We decided to stop there and explore its beautiful gardens.
We spent about 40 minutes in the gardens before continuing along the path through the bamboo grove. The section of the path past the temple is called Chikurin no Komichi (“Path of Bamboo”) and is the prettier and more popular route. But honestly there is much more to see in the gardens than in the bamboo grove. The path continues and you basically get more of the same – tall bamboo stalks forming a shaded canopy with sunlight trickling through the dense leaves. It is definitely beautiful and worth seeing but the scenery is exactly the same along the length of the path.
The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is unique and very pretty but not something you need to spend a lot of time at to fully enjoy. It took us less than an hour to walk the length of it including a 40 minute stop at Tenryu-ji Temple gardens. Arashiyama is about 30 minutes from downtown Kyoto so I would not make the trip solely for the bamboo forest. If you combine it with the Monkey Park and/or other activities, it is worth the trip but if your only goal is to see bamboo, there are other forests in Kyoto that are easier to get to and less crowded.
