Arashiyama– category –
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Keep Walking: A Night at Arashiyama Tsukitouro, Kyoto’s Bamboo Light-Up
"Excuse me. Where is the light-up?" Tenryuji closes its gates at 5:00 p.m., which left me in the bamboo grove with an hour to kill and nowhere to kill it. Arashiyama is not generous with benches. There is no real rest area, and walking b... -
The Scenery Changed. The Warnings Didn’t. Katsura Imperial Villa, Twice
Katsura Imperial Villa lives in Japanese history textbooks. It also lived around the corner from two of my closest friends. In college, the three of us spent nearly every day together. Their homes were close enough to Katsura Rikyu, as t... -
Tsukiyomi Shrine: Kyoto’s Forgotten Moon God, Three Minutes from Matsuo Taisha
Amaterasu, the sun. Susanoo, the storm. Anyone who has read a single page of Japanese mythology knows those two, mostly because of the famous quarrel they had. There was a third child. Tsukiyomi, the moon, born alongside them when Izanag... -
A Shrine for Your Smartphone: Horinji Temple Arashiyama and the Amulet I Didn’t Buy
There is a god for smartphones. Search "Horinji Temple Arashiyama" and you will mostly find photographs of thirteen-year-olds in formal kimono. That is fair. It is what the temple is known for. But on its hillside there is a small shrine... -
Please Relax Your Legs: Suzumushi-dera Temple and the Thirty Minutes Nobody Translates
"Please relax your legs." Mine were already relaxed. I had given up on kneeling somewhere around the second minute, along with most of the room. This is how a visit to Suzumushi-dera Temple in western Kyoto begins: a hundred or so people... -
Matsuo Taisha (It’s Actually Matsunoo): The Kyoto Sake Shrine I Underestimated Twice
The Rope Was Too Thick The rope surprised me first. At Matsuo Taisha, a shrine at the western foot of Kyoto, you announce your presence to the deity by shaking a braided rope to ring a bell, and when I closed my hand around this one my f... -
Nonomiya Shrine at 6:30 a.m.: The Kyoto Shrine You Have to Hear
The first thing I offered the gods at Nonomiya Shrine was silence. I tossed a coin at the offering box and the coin declined to go in. It hit the wooden rim, spun once, and settled there. No clatter against the bottom of the box. No smal... -
The Path That Skips the Bamboo Grove: Daihikaku Senkoji, the Temple I Put Off for Three Years
Two Western tourists were talking at the foot of Togetsukyo Bridge. "Does this way go to the Bamboo Grove?" "No. It doesn't." I was heading in exactly the opposite direction. My destination was a temple that had been bothering me for thr... -
Adashino Nenbutsuji: Kyoto’s Temple of 8,000 Silent Stones
Temple fatigue is real. Ask anyone on day four of a Kyoto itinerary. The gold of Kinkakuji, the raked gravel of Ryoanji, the wooden stage of Kiyomizu. All beautiful, and after a while the beauty starts sliding off you like rain off a goo... -
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove: A Local’s Guide to Seeing It Empty
Why do people photograph bamboo? I ask myself this every time I come to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. I grew up in Shizuoka, where my parents' land holds more bamboo than anyone knows what to do with. For me, photographing bamboo is rough...
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