Arashiyama

It is genuinely beautiful for about ninety seconds, usually the ninety seconds in which nobody happens to be in front of your camera. The stems are enormous, the light is green and the sound is real – the grove is one of the hundred soundscapes officially designated by the Japanese environment ministry, and on a windy day that is not marketing.

But the fencing means you cannot step off the path, the corridor is narrow, and between about 9:00 and 16:00 it is a single moving file of people. There is no viewpoint, no clearing and no way round. The photographs you have seen were taken at first light with a long lens.

If you want that version, you need to be there before 7:30. The grove has no gate and no opening hour, so this is entirely available – and it is the only way the bamboo justifies the journey out to the western edge of the city.

Tenryu-ji was founded in 1339 and its Sogenchi pond garden, laid out by Muso Soseki, is the oldest garden in Japan surviving in substantially its original design. It is a borrowed-landscape composition: the pond in front, and then the Arashiyama hills used as the back of the picture, so the garden appears to be several kilometres deep.

The garden alone is ¥500. Adding the buildings – the Kuri, the Ohojo and the veranda you can sit on looking straight down the pond – costs ¥300 more, and it is the better ticket: the point of the composition is the seated view from the hall, not the walk round.

The Cloud Dragon painting on the Dharma Hall ceiling is a further ¥500 and is only open at weekends, on public holidays and during the spring and autumn special periods. Hours are 8:30 to 17:00 with last admission 16:50, and the north gate of the garden opens directly onto the bamboo path – which is the sensible way to do the whole thing in one movement.

Walk to the end of the bamboo and the crowd turns left toward the station. Straight on is Okochi Sanso, the villa and gardens built by the silent-film actor Okochi Denjiro over some thirty years. It charges admission and includes matcha and a sweet in the price, the circuit climbs to a view over the city and the Hozu gorge, and on a busy Saturday there may be a dozen people in it.

The rest of Arashiyama repays a half-day rather than an hour. The Hozugawa boat ride arrives here from Kameoka after two hours on the river. Gio-ji, a small moss temple fifteen minutes north, and Jojakko-ji on the hillside are both excellent and almost unvisited. The Togetsukyo bridge is pleasant and completely mobbed.

Come by JR to Saga-Arashiyama rather than the Randen tram if you are starting from Kyoto Station – it is faster and the tram is the more interesting way back. In late November the whole district runs at capacity and the last trains out are unpleasant; aim to leave by four.