Arashiyama is strictly speaking still Kyoto. About 30 minutes from the main station. It can be reached by train, bus or the Randen Tramline. The interest here again was not so much a tourist experience but a professional curiosity as to how a traditional Japanese hotel or Ryokan might feel like and how it is managed and how different it is.
But before we left Kyoto itself we had to do some more sightseeing. For that purpose we left our luggage at the hotel and wandered off direction railway station. Once we negotiated the maze of the railway station we emerged in the town square with its Kyoto Tower from the 1960s. From there we sort of walked aimlessly following a busy road, passed a temple, turned left onto another busy road with high end shops, then left again and ended up in a temple! Nishi-Hongan-Ji. It had a massive entrance gate with golden hanging lantern and inside many buildings, walkways and ponds.
Time to go back, retrieve the luggage and get the tram to Arashiyama on the Randen Line, a left-over tramline from years ago and run by the Keifuku Electric Railroad Company. We took a taxi to get to the start of the line. And there it was, a cute blue little electric tram running on narrow gauge tracks.
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Randen Train
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It was a pleasant trip trundling through Kyoto's neighbourhoods and interesting to see back gardens of old houses, narrow lanes and every now and then a temple or shrine. They are all over Kyoto almost every corner has one.
The final station, Arashiyama, was really cute and very different. The way to outside is flanked by 600 kimono poles all lit up with soft light beams and very colourful. Throughout the station are also 3000 bamboos and in between are stalls selling souvenirs, food and drink. Once outside we were greeted by hordes of people all walking up and down the main street again lined with innumerous shop, cafes and restaurants.
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Kimono Forest |
We had to make our way through this crowd down to the river pulling our luggage behind. It was not far but we had to get across a bridge which was just choked with people and traffic. One just has to push through it all. On the other side we soon spotted our boat which was going to take us to the hotel. A concierge stood by the steps and checked our names on a sheet of paper and invited us into a house opposite for the check-in formalities and a cup of tea. They also took care of our luggage.
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Boat to hotel |
Finally we could board the boat and took off into the river upstream. On the water were a lot of pleasure boats making navigation quite difficult for our driver and once we even bumped into one because they could not get out of the way quick enough. But then the river became narrower and our barge slowly made its way towards our destination which soon revealed itself perched on the side of the river in thick forest.
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Welcome Party |
At the pier five people greeted us, took care of the luggage and escorted us up the hill and into the hotel compound. All very exclusive and luxurious for up there we were given another welcome drink and were explained the workings of the hotel and were invited for a late afternoon activity which we booked into.
The hotel room was huge overlooking the river. But unlike last time this one had a proper table and chairs. Which was a relieve because we had booked dinner but as the restaurant was already full we had to eat in the room!
We had about two hours before the activity and I went for a walk behind the hotel which led by steep steps up to a temple with amazing views over the forest and to distant Kyoto. I sat outside on the balcony of the building and just took it all in until I was ordered to move by a monk who was closing down for the day.
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View from temple towards Kyoto |
It was all quite fabulous. Our activity was in a building just behind our room and up the hill. It was a lovely Japanese hall and was all laid out with lovely decorations. Part of the activity was drinking sparkling sake and eating some Japanese sweets. It was very good but the more practical activity was doing Origami. For that purpose every person had in front of them sheets of paper and an instruction manual on how to make Orgami. I chose to make a bird of course! It could even open and close its mouth when one pulled the tail! How nice it all was.
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Sparkling Sake and Origami!
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Japanese Sweets |
Dinner was served around seven o'clock and was a Kaiseki style dinner. Lots of small dishes, miso soup and rice. I did like some of it but it was not up to the standard we had in Matsumoto or maybe it was just different and not so much to our taste. We decided to cancel our booking we had made for the restaurant the next evening! Some impressions from the food below.
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Dinner table
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Tempura
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Fish selection
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Tofu
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Tuna or Whale?
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Breakfast! |
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