While we normally travel independently, there are times we take local tours to gain some insight and history of the area we are visiting. Reading about things only goes so far, guides, well good guides, will add some interesting things that you simply can’t find online. At least not without spending hours digging, and by then you’re likely to forget.  

Walking the Bamboo forest and a row boat ride

This past Sunday we took the bus and headed over to Arashiyama, walking through the bamboo forest. The photo is Meg standing in “Bamboo Alley” – note the height of the bamboo. We then explored the Okochi-Sanso Villa and gardens where we had a modified tea ceremony in the bamboo forest.  Then we continued walking toward the river where we rented a row boat and spent an hour on the Katsura River. It was a lovely day, +25C, and clear skies with light breezes.

A neat bike tour of hidden Kyoto

In Kyoto, we also took a bike tour and saw some interesting things we would have never seen.  the tour was about 3 1/2 hour and covered 7km. There were some stops and we had time to see things and have a snack along the way.

We also saw the Golden Temple, which was on our to do list.  The building is actually coated in gold leaf. You can’t get into the building, it can only be seen from across the pond. The guide took a great photo of us, catching the reflection of the temple on the pond.

A neat back street tour of Osaka

In Osaka, we took a back street food tour.  We learned a lot about the back streets of Osaka, including the red-light district and organized crime. We also learned why so many houses are abandoned in Japan. We then visited an Izakaya that we would have never walked into, although once inside we realized everyone was a tourist, so it may not have been the real experience. Osaka is reputed to be the food capital of Japan, we’ll reserve judgement until we’ve been more places. The next day we did venture into a local spot that we would have never tried before.

A walking tour of Kyoto

In Kyoto we also took a walking tour. We learned a number of things, saw one of the Gisha districts (shown here). The tour started at 9:30, however as it progressed the streets became more crowded as it was a national holiday.

It was a good lesson in “rising early”, which we did the next day as we ventured to Fushimi Inari Shrine, catching the first train at 06:30 and arriving back at our hotel by 12:00. It is a long hike up to the top, but seeing the 10,000 Torii gates was worthwhile.

Poking around on our own

We leave Kyoto in two days for Tokyo, so we’re now in the “poke around” phase, finding nooks and crannies that are interesting. Today we returned to Kiyomizu-Dera temple, which we skipped on the walking tour. The tour ended there, but the queues were way too long for us. They were much more reasonable today. The photo is Meg in front the “easy childbirth” pagoda. I’m hoping Meg isn’t planning anything I’m not aware of.

Then we found a Mom and Pop restaurant for lunch that had amazing food, and lots of local business men coming in for great food.

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions in the comments, or give us some ideas.