Climbing Atago Mountain to Atago Shrine

We took the 92 line bus from Nonomiya bus stop to Kiyotaki bus stop. It takes about 20 minutes. The bus was very crowded because this bus goes to Kiyotaki once an hour and many people went to Atago Shrine to pray for good luck through the new year.

Climbing the mountain was harder than we expected. The Atago Shrine is located at the top of Mt. Atago,924m high. We were exhausted when we got to the shrine.

After 2hours climbing the mountain, we got to Atago Shrine.
As this shrine is famous for protecting us from the fire. So we got the good luck charm to protect our kitchen.

We pray at the shrine for our safety from a fire, and went back home. On the way home, we dropped upon the village half way down the mountain. That village, Muzuo, is famous for producing UZU, a kind of orange which juice we use for hot pot.
There were a lot of UZU trees and we could enjoy seeing idiotic landscape.

Restaurant Otsuka

  I went to Restaurant Otsuka in Arashiyama area to have lunch. There used to be Stake Otsuka, which moved to new place near Saga Arashiyama Station.
After it moved there, original restaurant has been closed until recently.
  Then it opened as a new restaurant this November. I happened to find the signboard and visited the restaurant.
They now serve only two menues and only
open for lunch.
My husband and I ordered both menues; beef sushi and mackerel roll sushi.
We share them. They tasted very good.
As the restaurant has reopened very recentlt, it was not so crowded.
The restaurant is very comfortable and the meal is delicious, so I’d like to visit there again.

Japanese Sweets Shop, Kan-shun-do

Kan-shun-do, the very authentic Japanese sweets shop is located in Sagano area. It takes about ten minutes on foot from Saga Arashiyama Station or Randen Arashiyama Station. It is near Seiryoji Temple.

They sell many kinds of beautiful Japanese sweets; candies,nerikiri, sugar sweets.

You can take nerikiri making lesson if you take reservation beforehand.

Steak Otsuka, the Beefsteak Restaurant in Saga Arashiyama

My friends and I went to Steak Otsuka to have lunch. It takes only 3minutes to walk to the restaurant from JR Saga Arashiyama Station. Go north to Marutamachi Street and turn left, and you can find Steak Otsuka on your left.
We had reservation through the net, so we could enter the restaurant on the dot at 11:00, but there had already a lot of customers waiting. So you should get reservation on the net, or go there around 10:00.

We ordered Murasawa beef steak, roast beef bowl, stewed beef bowl, and sukiyaki beef bowl. We shared all four dishes.They all taste very good.

Tenjin-ichi, Tenjin Flea Market at Kitano Temmangu Shrine and A Bakery

Tenjin Flea Market is held every 25th of the months at Kitano Temmangu Shrine.
I took Randen train to Kitano Hakubaicho and visited the market.

It takes about 5minutes walking to Kitano Temmangu Shrine. There were many shops in the shrine and around the shrine.
They sell antique potteries, secondhand Japanese kimono, handmade goods, food and so on. It was very interesting to browse around the variety of shops.

I also bought Chogoro mochi, sweet dumpling at Kitano Temmangu. This is special sweet sold only on 25th and event days.

After browsing the market, I walked north to get to Kita-oji Street to buy wallnuts bread at the bakery named “Ame-no-hi-mo-kaze-no-hi-mo”.The bakery is on the Kita-oji Street near Hunaoka-yama and Takeisao Shrine. I bought wallnut bread and some other bread, and went home. They were very delicious.

The Moon Viewing Day in Daikakuji Temple

In Kyoto, there are lots of events enjoying viewing full moon in September.
We visited Daikakuji Temple to join the moon viewing event.
If you get ticket by 1000yen beforehand, you can get on the special boat for the moon viewing on the Osawa pond.
We couldn't get the tickets so paid entrance fee, 400 yen, and went into the garden of the temple.

We couldn't get on the boat, but enjoyed seeing boats on the pond, the moon in the sky, and the reflection of the moon on the pond all together.

The flower arrangement presentation was also done on the stage on the pond.

You can buy “tsukimi bento”(the boxed meal for the moon viewing) in the garden.
We had already had dinner then, we didn't buy bento, but we would like to buy it next time and have dinner viewing the full moon over Osawa Pond.

Short Trip from Arashiyama, to Kiyotaki

Kiyotaki is in Mt.Atago and the popular destination for children to swim in the river. The place is also popular among people hiking and trecking by the Kiyotaki River.
We got on the 92 Kyoto bus at Nonomiya bus stop at 8:03.
It takes around 20minutes to get to Kiyotaki Bus Stop from Nonomiya  by bus.
We started walking from the Toen Bridge.
Toen means crossing monkeys.

Then we walked into the village and went down to the path along the river.

By the river, we found the stone monument scribed with the famous poem made by Matsuo Basho;“Kiyotaki ya Nami ni chirikomu Ao-matsuba”, said to be his last poem.

We went along the river for about 40 minutes. It’s very cool and we had very refreshing time walking there.

We met only a few people there, and the path ended at Ochiai.

From Ochiai, we walked to Tori-i-moto(the place where is the first gate of Atago Shrine) on the paved road.
We got to Okusaga around 9:30.
It was very short trip from a city area, but we enjoyed wonderful nature a lot.
We had green tea and Sakura-mochi at Tsutaya, an  inn and restaurant with long history, and went home.