Kyoto Arashiyama Bamboo Forest & Scenery Customized Private Tour

Meeting point

Where

JR Saga-Arashiyama Station (in front of a ticket gate)

Departure

07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00 daily; scheduled through October 2027 (operator schedule, seats confirmed at checkout)

Return

This activity ends back at the meeting point

Pickup

No hotel pickup: everyone meets at the start point

Operator

Japan Wonder Travel; booking and payment are completed on Viator

1. 1
   Meet with your guide at JR Saga-Arashiyama Station (in front of a ticket gate)

   Based on your preferences, you will visit select sites in Arashiyama/Sagano area. We have listed popular/suggested spots for your reference. Please choose the ones that interest you from the list: On average, you can visit 2-3 spots in a half-day tour. If you don't find the spots you want to visit, please feel free to discuss your preferences with the guide. The guide will then customize the itinerary for you.

   1 min
2. 2
   Togetsukyo Bridge

   Built over the Katsura River, this 155 meter long bridge is one of the iconic images of Arashiyama. It's a great spot to take in the surrounding scenery and Arashiyama mountains as the backdrop.

   1 min
3. 3
   Tenryu-ji Temple

   This temple has a long history and is one of the most famous zen temples in all of Kyoto. Known as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has a stunning garden where the plants and flowers make for a different feel every season.

   1 min · Admission not included
4. 4
   Okochi Sanso Garden

   Denjiro Okochi, a famous actor of Samurai film, spent about 30 years building this vast villa garden, which covers an area of 19800 square meters. The garden is surrounded by cherry blossoms in spring and autumn leaves in autumn, and offers beauty in every season. The view of the Hozu River flowing below and the city of Kyoto is also a highlight.

   1 min · Admission not included
5. 5
   Jojakkoji Temple

   Located on the hillside of Mt Ogura, which has been famous for its autumn foliage since the late Heian period (794-1185), Jōjakkoji Temple has about 200 old maple trees, which turn red, orange and yellow and combine with the green of the moss.

   1 min · Admission not included
6. 6
   Nisonin

   A quiet temple surrounded by beautiful landscapes that have survived the passage of 1200 years. The temple is famous for its autumn foliage. The temple is called 'Nison-in' because it enshrines the two principal Buddha images. The two principal images have faces and figures like twins, with their left and right hands raised and lowered symmetrically. The temple is located a short distance from central Arashiyama, so you can enjoy a moment of tranquillity.

   1 min · Admission not included
7. 7
   This temple is known as a ""temple of the tragic love""

   It was the temple where a lady dancer who was favoured by the powers of the time lost his favour and spent time as a nun after a broken heart.The grounds of the temple are covered with beautiful green bamboo and green maples, with a moss-covered garden. The window in the antechamber of the hermitage is also worth seeing. It reflects a variety of colours depending on the way light enters the room.

   1 min · Admission not included
8. 8
   Adashino Nembetsu-ji Temple

   This area has been a place of burial since ancient times, first with wind burial, but later with earth burial, where people dedicated a stone Buddha and mourned for the eternal separation of the dead. The approximately 8,000 stone Buddhas and stupas enshrined in the grounds are the graves of people buried in the area.

   1 min · Admission not included
9. 9
   Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple

   The origin of this temple can be traced back to 8th century but the temple became uninhabited during the WWII and was abandoned after a typhoon in 1950 caused extensive damage to the temple grounds, halls and Buddhist statues, but was rebuilt in 1955 when Buddhist sculptor Nishimura Kimitomo (1915-2003) was appointed abbot, and the reconstruction of the most run-down temple in Kyoto began. The temple is known as a ""temple of healing"", where visitors can relax and feel at ease with the expressive line-up of 1,200 statues of arhats carved by ordinary worshippers.

   1 min · Admission not included
10. 10
    Saga Toriimoto Traditional Buildings Preservation Area

    Toriimoto is a conservation area located at the far end of Sagano which is about 600 metres along Atago Highway leading to Atago Shrine.The area has a mix of farmhouse-style buildings with thatched roofs and machiya-style buildings with two floors and tiled roofs, and has a well-preserved character of a Japanese rural historical landscape.

    1 min
11. 11
    Monkey Park Iwatayama

    If you are animal lovers, why not visiting here? Around 120 Japanese macaques currently live in the wild in this monkey park. The park is full of nature and the monkeys can be seen throughout the year.

    1 min · Admission not included
12. 12
    Bamboo Forest Street

    This is one of the biggest attarctions in all of Kyoto, with thousands of tall bamboo towering in the area making for a beautiful forest. It's an amazing spot that makes you feel like you're in a fairy tale.

    1 min

About this tour, from the operator