Autumn in Kyoto - Day 5 Final (26 Nov 2013)

A full day of fun at Arashiyama

With our last full day, we visited the very very VERY touristy town of Arashiyama. By train, it only takes 30 minutes to get there. It's an area with a river running through it, many quaint shops selling mostly souvenirs, and quite a few famous restaurants to try. Don't get discouraged by the bus loads of tourist in that area. Just remember to queue early for the restaurant. My journey was Tenryuji - Bamboo Forest -Jojakkoji - Lunch at Hanana. If you have been following my posts, my second of two favourite temples in Kyoto is Jojakkoji. The flowers are so densely red, as you will see in the photos below.

The view that greeted us from the Arashiyama train station (Hankyu line)

Happily throwing leaves into the air. Too bad the leaves were too small

First-stop: Tenryuji Temple. Don't the leaves look so artificially colored?

It was approximately 5-10'C today. Her back was bare.

Entrance to Jojakkoji Temple

See what I mean? Everything is packed very densely so that the sky looks red

Take a short hike to the top of the hill for a view of the city

Finally it's time for lunch, and we picked Hanana. This turned out to be our super-duper navigator's favourite meal of the entire trip. The kaiseki set costs 2000¥ each, 2 types to choose from. We tried them both, and it's hard to choose which was better. Needless to say, there was a queue to get in. This time, we needed to wait for only 40 minutes to get a table.

In front is the grilled sea bream set - super-duper navigator's favourite

This was my raw sea bream set, which comes with a pot of green tea to mix into your rice to become soup. Delicious!

Dessert is made with pine nut. Also really delicate but oh so smooth

It was 2pm, and the place was getting way too touristy for our liking. We caught a bus and made one last stop at the Golden Pavilion Temple, Kinkakuji. It was a bit of a disappointment here, just one single building in the middle of a pretty garden. No autumn atmosphere. Guess we have been spoilt.

On the streets of Arashiyama

Kinkakuji temple. Yes its gold was really shimmering in the sunlight

After a long day, we made it back to town for our favourite udon shop which everyone enjoyed immensely. It totally spoiled our dinner, but the udon was worth the try.

We finally found the backalleys called Pontocho, known for the geisha feel

A light gyoza meal for dinner. Very good too.

That's it folks. RM2700 spent per person excluding shopping, but it included a lot and a lot of food as you can see. Until the next exciting adventure with Crazy Digest and the super-duper navigator, sayonara!


Other posts in this series:
Autumn in Kyoto 2013 - Planned Itinerary
Autumn in Kyoto - Day 1 (22 Nov 2013)
Autumn in Kyoto - Day 2 (23 Nov 2013)
Autumn in Kyoto - Day 3 (24 Nov 2013)
Autumn in Kyoto - Day 4 (25 Nov 2013)
Autumn in Kyoto - Day 5 Final (26 Nov 2013)