After checking in at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, we took the local train towards the western part of Kyoto and made our first stop at Daikakuji Temple.
Taking cue from my past experiences visiting tourist hot spots in Japan, we arrived around 45 minutes prior to closing time. As a result, the temple was nearly deserted and we marveled in relative solitude at the ancient elevated wooden walkways connecting the various buildings.
Truly we felt like we were in ancient Japan.
In front of Daikakuji Temple is a small graveyard, where cherry blossom petals from perfectly placed Sakura trees fall gracefully on top of graves honoring the deceased.
Next to the temple was the Osawa pond, which looked absolutely stunning during the peak mankai bloom.
As the sun began to set on horizon, we headed to the world famous Arashiyama bamboo forest.
The eerily sounds of the bamboo stalks rustling in the slight wind breeze was simply mystifying, and we found ourselves spending a bit longer than planned in this enchanting forest.
Do know that the bamboo forest is unlit, and we barely made it outside as the last rays of dusk were disappearing.
Afterwards, we headed back towards the main tourist area of Arashiyama, which was deserted.
Across the river banks, a grove of sakura trees were in full bloom, but due to nightfall we were unable to explore further.
Afterward, we headed back to the Hyatt Regency for a quick break before heading to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, made famous by a rather potent scene in the movie Memories of Geisha.
As local tradition states that the ancestor ghost spirits come out from the tori gates at night, it was no surprise we pretty much had the shrine all to ourselves.
Thankfully, spotlights are attached to a few gates, and I found walking under the empty torii shrine to be a complete 180 during the daytime.
Crowded during the daytime
Do note that besides one lone Sakura tree, you’d be hard-pressed to find any evidence that Kyoto was in the middle of Mankai.
We then took the short train ride back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep after another whirlwind day of touring.
