Arashiyama gonna getcha

My first day in Kyoto and I decide to sleep in a bit. By sleep in, I mean, sleep until 8am. And my penance was this:

People. So many people!! On the JR train to Saga-Arashiyama. Oi. The crowd thinned out a bit, but I learned my lesson. Start out earlier. 

The main draw to Arashiyama was the Bamboo Forest Path and the Zen Temple and Garden. 

Along the way, I saw these little monks. 

How friggin' cute. 

Calm is available at the lotus pond within the Zen temple's grounds. Can't really be found outside. 

I'm not sure who this is, but whoa, pretty ornate wings there buddy. Or is that just a stylized backdrop? Either way, nice. 

I think this guy is the spokesperson for this particular temple.  Pretty grand, huh? I like how he's rolling his eyes at you. Wait, he's a zen master, so he's probably not annoyed at you. 

So the grounds of the temple consist of a number of meditation areas, as well as shrine rooms, and ...

This is a drawing room. Or I could have been turned around, so this is the meditation room? Okay, it's a room where they did stuff. 

Ah, this is another one of those cool guys. THIS, I do remember, is a meditation room, because a bunch of people had sat down and I had to walk around a lot of randomly placed people to take this guy's picture. 

So that other boring room. For drawing. Definitely. 

Another zen water garden. How cool are these things?!? Every house/monastery/condo should have one of these. 

With adjacent koi pond. 

And froggy princess shrine. Okay, so that's probably not right. I'll let you draw your own conclusions here. 

Close to the zen monastery is the bamboo forest. Unfortunately, it was close to 10:30am when I got here, so it was wall to wall people. So here are some artful pics of the forest, I attempted to take amongst the crowds. 

 A short walk from the bamboo forest, I came across a small rice field ready for harvest. 

The rows and rows of grain looked very peaceful, particularly since most of the tourists did not go this same way. 

I finished off the morning with a nice set lunch of cold Japanese vermicelli with dipping sauce and sesame, yuba with pickled vegetables, fresh silken tofu and sesame sauce, and a matcha tea jelly dessert cube. I liked everything, except halfway through the silken tofu with sesame sauce, my hunger abandoned me and I became acutely aware of the texture. That was my last bite. Erp. 

Otherwise, I was very happy!!  

The rest of my afternoon was pleasant but pretty uneventful. I skipped the monkey park, choosing to explore some side streets in Arashiyama.