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A week in Kyoto
Whilst I was working in Beijing, I made a week-long trip to Kyoto in Japan as I had heard from everyone I spoke to, that Kyoto was a beautiful part of Japan, and of course there are the cherry blossom trees and Geisha to see. I looked up the best time to visit when the cherry blossoms were in bloom and with a friend, we departed Beijing.
I visited many places and intend to post on all my visits, but today my post is on my visit to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. I loved Kyoto – it was absolutely gorgeous!! And people were so lovely; albeit hardly any spoke English and I do not speak Japanese (but we managed – hand gestures work really well).
We flew on Air China from Beijing and then pre-arranged transport on the airport shuttle to our hotel (Toyoko Inn Kyoto Shijo-Karasuma), which was very small and not a hotel room you would want to spend much time in but it was ok!
Bamboo Grove is one of Kyoto’s most famous sites and said to be very similar to the bamboo forest in the film ‘crouching tiger hidden dragon‘. I have watched the movie and do agree (fabulous movie).
The grove is very popular with Japanese tourists especially in the cherry blossom festival time, as like everywhere in Kyoto, there are many cherry blossom trees, but I was lucky as it was a very wet day, and there were not ‘that’ many tourists. I think the rain made the visit even more wonderful as the rain drops were falling on the bamboo which looked just lovely.
The bamboo is spectacular and it’s lovely walking through the paths with incredibly high bamboo surrounding you.
