It is not just “another forest”, it is a bamboo grove and it is stunning.

The no. 1 rule in when it comes to tourist sights, especially in Asia, is go early. It really pays off. So that is what we did (again) today, when going to experience the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.

You can access it directly from the main street of Arashiyama, a little to the north of the entrance to Tenryu-ji Temple, but we also paired with a visit to that temple and ancient temple garden, so we went through the Northern Gate of the garden.

After visiting the grove first, we went down hill to see the temple and garden, and we saw all the other tourist going up to the bamboos – then we were so happy we were there early to experience the grove without hordes of other people.

The Bamboo Grove is open 24 hours a day.