Biking and Bamboo

Yesterday I had a pretty relaxed schedule, but the area I was going to was the furthest off yet. Arashiyama is a mountain to the west thats full of bamboo forest and wild monkies.  While the forest itself isnt readily accessible as I found, there is a temple nearby that has the "path of bamboo" which is how most tourists experience it.  It was 4.7 miles away.  There is a train that goes out there, but in the end I decided to bike.  Nori has bikes for day rental for 500 yen.

After grabbing a chicken breakfast and a peach coca cola, I headed out on the bike.  Somewhere along the way the compass on my band fell off, which kinda sucks because it means I'll have to check my phone a little more frequently vs glancing at my wrist.  Maybe today I can try to hunt down a store that has one.  

Nori had also shown me a shrine is the suburbs on the way over there that supposedly had some cherry blossoms in bloom.  It took me probably an hour to get there.  There were 2 cherry blossoms in full bloom that were slowly dropping their petals, and the shrine itself ws very nice.  I did a quick 15 minute walkthrohgh and headed out.

During this time I was trying to take a lot of pictures of the city.  Further out there are a lot of cute roads and houses and its against the backdrop of the mountain.

As I got closer to Arashiyama I spotted the Togetsu-Kobashi bridge.  Its a landmark for the area, and since it was so nice lots of people were out.  Along the river a nice old lady coming back from grabbing some veggies from the market talked to me for a bit.  General stuff like nice weather, where are you from, etc.

When I got to the bridge it was hopping.  People were getting ice cream and taking pictures over the side.  I walked my bike across but really should've ridden across.

Biking in Japan os pretty awesome because they're allowed on sidewalks, but can also be ridden in the street on the side of the lane.  Sometimes sidewalks have an area specially marked for bikes, sometimes the roads have them, sometimes neither.  Its pretty awesome and made it easy to get wherever.  On top of that my feet got a break for most of the day.

On the other side of the bridge I was biking on a road back and forth.  Google maps had taken me this way to Arashiyama, but I couldn't find the entrance anywhere.  I zoomed in the turn I was looking for in maps and it had the Japanese name and "THIS IS NOT AN ENTRANCE TO ARASHIYAMA" on it.  Doh.  

I stopped at a shrine near the bridge amd asked an attendant for directions.

Thats where I found out you can't go into the forest and the bamboo grove is by the shrine.

The grove itself was somewhat disappointing. It took a while to get through, but was packed and didn't appear to be a natural grove.  It had buildings and snack stands around it.  Since I'd gotten through kind of quickly I decided to take a suburban detour.  I was lioking for another thrift store called HARD-OFF and was the next place I wanted to search for the elyusve gameboy light, and was recommended as a place to check by reddit.  On my way I got to see lest touristy areas and take some nice pictures.   HARD-OFF had some neat stuff and a good video game selection, but not what I was looking for.  So the hunt continues.

From there I headed back to the hostel.  I did another load of laundry to prepare for today, since it was my last night at the guest house.  Nori was cool enough to skip the fee again of 300 yen for the laundry and dryer.  

While I waited for it to finish I watched some Netflix (since I had no undies or socks).  I also spent that time figuring out what to see that night and what to eat.  I decided on Yasaka Jinja, the shrine in Gion, the Geisha district since I'd missed it before, and a Yakitori restaraunt.  

After I had some dry clothes I set out for the Yakitori restaraunt.  I opened up the door to find a narrow room with a bar and several guys cooking and preparing meat skewers behind the counter.  I sat in an open spot next to another guy (everyone there were locals as it turned out).  Another couple sat down on the other side with their 7 month old son Kenshin, who was very well behaved and apparently very interested in me.  After learning I spoke a little Japanese the guy on my right struck up a conversation with me around what I was doing in Japan and work.  I tried saying in English I have a difficult time explaining my business,  but said I work on and build websites.

Despite going through a couple beers the couple trusted me enough to hold Kenshin.  Confirmed not father material.  I held him for like 15 seconds and was like "Hi Kenshin!".... ok back to Dad. 

Afterwards I said goodbye and headed to the shrine.  It was about 9ish when I got there and had a closed carnival vibe.  During the day and early evening theres a lot of food stands there.  At night with few people around it was really pretty though.  Lanterns were lit up and reflecting off ththe ground since it rained a little.  Pretty nice.  After that did a quick loop through Gion and headed out.