Day 16: Arishyama
Today we explored Arishyama with our guide Takashi. Despite the incredible heat (it seems to be a lot hotter here than anywhere else we've visited), it was a really beautiful area to explore.
We began by visiting the Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple, a beautiful Buddhist temple featuring over 1,200 (stone!) heads scattered around the grounds.
From here, we headed to the Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple, a Buddhist graveyard with more stone heads! They seem to like a stone head...! It also had a beautiful bamboo grove tucked behind the temple, which we had almost to ourselves!
Next, we ducked into a few small shops, all with lovely air conditioning, to buy a few beautiful souvenirs that we probably don't need!
We then went on to the Giōji Temple, which had a stunning moss garden!
We began wandering towards lunch, and went through the far more famous Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, which was heaving!
We then had lunch at the Tenyruji Temple Shigetsu, which gave us a lovely vegan tasting menu.
At this point, we'd pretty much expired from the heat, so began to head back! We had a chilled rest of the day, before heading out to a local restaurant in the evening!
Bamboo sways gently,
The soft whisper in the wind:
Out slides a lizard!