Day trip to 嵐山 Arashiyama

We travelled to 嵐山 Arashiyama in the morning, to experience the lovely stroll in the bamboo groves. It was an easy walk from the 嵯峨嵐山駅 JR Saga Arashiyama Station, as we basically just followed the crowd.  This meant that there was quite a fair number of people attempting to take photos at the more popular spots within the bamboo groves, including 2 Japanese dressed in kimonos, with an entourage of photographer and assistants, and they attracted plenty of attention from all the tourists! Aside from this, it was a rather serene stroll 🙂 As we walked along, there was also a lone vendor selling pretty postcards.

After our walk, we went to visit cocoon doll shop, あだしのまゆ村 Adashi no Mayu-mura. We loved the beautiful dolls, and got a couple back as souvenirs. We could even customise the message strip with well-wishes in either Japanese or English 🙂

Soon, it was almost time for an early lunch. And since we were in Kyoto, we definitely need to savour it’s famous speciality 豆腐料理 Tofu Cuisine!

We had gone to 嵯峨とうふ 稲 Saga Tofu Ine for the tofu set lunch back in 2011, and still remembered how delicious it was… So this trip, we were back again!

We tried the 嵐山御膳 Arashiyama Set (limited time only [期間限定], ¥1980) and the 野宮御膳 Nomiya Set (¥1950) again 😛

The last round, the English and Japanese menu were showing different items for the sets (and so we didn’t get what we thought we would), so this time, we compared both menus and found them to be identical, haha! I guessed they catered to a lot of tourists, because they also offered us Chinese menu too.

We were seated on the 2nd floor, and there was a real fire going to keep us warm… reminded us of Bhutan, hee 😛 Once we placed our orders, the food came rather quickly.

The food was as good as we remembered it to be, and we loved how they made a variety of dishes with tofu, especially the homemade tofu skin in the bamboo pail! We also particularly enjoyed the 黒本蕨 Kuro-Hon-Warabi, aka bracken rice cakes, which was also available to buy home as a souvenir from their retail store.

Oh, do remember to grab the 湯葉ドーナツ Soybean Yuba Doughnut (¥200 each) from their retail shop too. This Kyoto-style doughnut had a natural sweetness to it, and was more chewy than those deep fried doughnut that we had in Singapore. Eaten hot, it was fabulous!

After lunch and post-lunch snack, we strolled along the streets and crossed the 渡月橋 Togetsukyo Bridge, and had a short stroll by the river… It was very cold!

We were close to freezing, where we saw a rather promising 渡月亭 Togetsu Cafe, with seats by the window facing the 渡月橋 Togetsukyo Bridge… And we decided that this was where we should laze our afternoon away! Of course, the advertised free charging and WiFi was rather attractive too 😛

With our hot Matcha Latte (¥497 inclusive of tax) and Cafe Latte (¥475), we plonked ourselves by the window and chill. Finally, a stronger cup of latte (in fact, the best latte during this trip), and an absolutely lovely matcha latte, with that hint of bitterness that I love!

There were free origami paper, so Ms V and I spent a bit of time trying to recall how to make paper cranes… Haha! There were also some books available for browsing, and we discovered the names to some of the flowers and fruits that we have seen during the trip so far. Meanwhile, hubby was enjoying the free Wifi 🙂

It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon relaxing away! When we felt nice and warm enough, we continued on our exploration, and we spotted this Kimono Forest. It was a pretty collection of kimonos displayed in cylinder-shaped pillars, which formed a lane way to, and all over, the tram station. We also passed by this water feature, Ryu no Atago, which is supposed to be the energy spot of the station, and people came here in the hopes of having their wishes come true. As the sun started to set, the kimono pillars started to light up, giving it a different beauty! What a pleasant walk 🙂