Much Ado About Bamboo

Today's adventure took place at the Arashiyama bamboo grove. As it is another populate tourist destination, there were a lot of people around, but most of the grove is fenced off, so people can't walk there. There is a small section that people are allowed to walk through, however, there are a bunch of rules that you're supposed to follow: walk around in a clockwise direction, no tripods, no eating or drinking, etc. We saw people breaking all of those rules while we were there. We also saw some guy flying a drone around. One of the things you're supposed to be able to do in the area is enjoy the sound of the bamboo swaying, but all we could hear was the buzz of the drone. Then he flew the drone into the bamboo, so you could hear the propeller cutting into the bamboo. That was a really sad sound.

There are quite a lot of temples in the area around the forest, so we tried to visit some of those, too. GP recommended we visit one called Jojakko-ji, which is about a fifteen minute walk away. It costs 400 yen to enter, but it was really nice to look at. It wasn't filled with people trying to buy charms or anything like that, so it was nice and peaceful. And with the recent snowfall, it was also really pretty. There was a section called the Immortal Poets Shrine there, and I thought I'd take a break and see if I'd get inspired to write some poetry, Here is the fruit of my labour:

We are at a shrine
Climbing lots of big steps
Je suis très content

MrFodder also tried, here is his poem:

My talent is the
best because I don't follow
the proper format

He then told me that I wasn't even standing at the Immortal Poets Shrine, but at some random building and that the actual shrine was a bit more to the right. Oh well, placebo effect!

We were able to leave the temple when we noticed that there was a section that we hadn't explored yet. We saw that it looked like someone else had built a snowman there recently, and of course, being from Australia, we had to build one, too! The snow was so soft and powdery, so it was really easy to put a snowman together. I really wanted to lie in it and make a snow angel, but it would probably be really rude.

Here is our second snowman!