We think a lot of visitors to Arashiyama get it wrong.
We are going to enter via a secret entrance that I read about.
Welcome to another beautiful if not a little bit chilly, day here in
Kyoto Japan. We are at another one of Kyoto's landmark sites. You may recognize it behind
me. We got up super early today at 5am to try to get here before the crowds, and it seems to have
worked. It's 7am and it seems to be us and a bunch of locals, and a beer truck, and a leaf blower
in the background. We are here in Arashiyama. Let's go see what the Bamboo Grove looks like.
Well, there's nobody here still. It's about 7 30. There's not really enough light for us to film,
so we're going to go check out the bridge that's in town and see what that's like.
Bill has no idea what it looks like yet, so it's a surprise for him. Adventure! It's about
8 A.M and the stores are starting to open up, and we're seeing more people around.
It's a really cute town. Even more important is that it's starting to warm up, because it is awfully
chilly with a bit of a breeze and when you're in the shade. The sun is just wonderfully warm.
Fun fact. When you eat breakfast at 5:30 a.m, you're hungry for lunch at 10am.
It's a situation.
Well, we went back across the bridge. We had a little bit of a
snack. Heather had some coffee, and now this town is coming alive, and it's warming up. It's a really
nice place. It's really quaint and fun, lots of fun shops. We're going to do some shopping.
and then we're going to head over to a garden nearby, and then we're
going to check out the Bamboo Forest a little bit after.
Light should be a little bit better. We'll see. Also there's,
I guess you'd call them rickshaws, there's all these rickshaws you can hire to take you around
the town. It doesn't sound like a good time to me. The drivers of these things are absolutely ripped.
They are so in shape, as you can imagine, hauling tourists around all day. Amazing.
That shop wins for the cutest stuff in Arashiyama.
Super unique and now we got a couple gifts. Time for lunch.
Their stuff does not fit in their pocket.
We have not sat down very often to eat, so we're excited to sit down for lunch today. We
ordered one of those box meals. It's nice to have something besides noodles or things on a stick for
lunch, and this looks and smells delicious. I am so excited to eat lunch. We've got a nice patio
view here of the mountains nearby. It's really nice. It's a nice spot. Lunch was delicious. We
need to have more sit-down meals while we're here in Japan, and now the streets are super
busy. It's really crowded, really curious to see whether our Bamboo Grove is crowded now,
but we are going to enter via sort of a secret entrance that I read about that
is through a garden. Our next stop is not the Bamboo Grove but actually the gardens.
We are at Sogochi garden now and we are enjoying the gardens. It's a small entrance fee,
and then there is an exit out the back that sort of deposits you right into the Bamboo Grove,
but this Garden is pretty beautiful. Take a look.
I don't think I've ever seen purple berries before, ever.
They're tiny berries, but they're purple. Oh, I love them.
In case you couldn't tell, we love videoing and photographing Gardens,
and this one is a doozy. It's beautiful. We have to actually cut ourselves short because we want
to go back to the Bamboo Forest and there's a little treat that we're going to take in
while we're there, on our way to the train. Not just any train. It's a tourist thing,
but it's called the Lover's train - Sagano, Lover's train.
You pop out of the gardens directly into probably the most Insta-famous section of the Bamboo Grove.
A perfect shortcut past all the people at the beginning. While there are far
more people here than 7am this morning, I would not call this crowded at all.
Yes, I am walking backwards. This is a test. It is much harder than it looks.
We have just entered the Okochi Sanso villa and Gardens. I hear the gardens here are beautiful.
The Villa is from a Japanese actor from like 100 years ago and you get some matcha tea afterwards,
which we haven't tried matcha tea yet, so this is where we're stopping for about an hour before we
catch the Romantic lovers train. This is really a beautiful area - peaceful, calm, and serene.
I feel like I say that about so many places, but we really feel it here.
If you do happen to come to these Gardens,
make sure that you duck when you go under this little gate. Ask Bill how he knows.
He's now 6 feet tall instead of 6 feet 1. To tell you the truth,
we have not been to many Japanese Gardens while we've been here yet, so to be able to
hit a couple of them on the same day is really amazing. Wow. If you come to Arish... Hey,
if you come to Arash... [God, why is it so hard to say?] If you come to Arashiyama,
do not miss the tea house that is like halfway through the Bamboo Garden. The view from up
here is spectacular, all over Kyoto. I had no idea this view was up here. It's absolutely beautiful.
All right, this is our matcha green tea, which looks really different.
I don't know how to describe the smell. It's sort of
like a grassy haybale green tea, so first try of matcha.
Oh, it's oh.
First it's bitter. You probably saw my reaction [oh],
and then it settles into the real green tea, mellow taste. It's really nice. I like it.
It also came with a treat, which is probably something of bean paste.
She explained what it was in Japanese.
I didn't understand. Let's give it a try.
Whatever I was expecting, that wasn't it.
It's just like a compressed powder with just a little bit of sweetness. It's good.
We think a lot of visitors to Arashiyama get it wrong. They come all the way from Kyoto and they
go to Bamboo Grove, get some nice photos, and that's it. They go back to Kyoto, and they're
really selling it short. There's a lot more to do here. There's a beautiful bridge, there's multiple
Gardens that are incredible, there's matcha tea that you can try. We had some fantastic food,
there was fun shopping. That shop wins for the most unique stuff here in Arashamaya? orisha Maya?
Well that shop wins for the cutest stuffs. That shop wins for the cutest stuff in Arashiyama.
That was not the husband I was looking for. Honestly, there was just a lot that was on offer,
including that amazing train ride at the end. That was fantastic. It was really incredible, and
strangely, the scenery reminded us of Slovenia, which I know sounds out there, but it really does.
If you want to compare Japan to Slovenia, then you should check out this video right up here. Decide
for yourself whether you think it reminds you of Slovenia. No, it's not here. Oh no, or maybe up
here. One of these two is about a train. Thanks so much for watching! See you next time! Bye!