Otagi Nenbutsu Temple and Arashiyama Bamboo Forest Tour
Description
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple is located on the outskirts of Arashiyama. There are 1200 unique and whimsical Buddhist statues there, so it is becoming a popular spot recently. Also, since the nearby Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is one of the most famous tourist locations in Kyoto/Japan, we decided to make a Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple & Bamboo Forest tour from Kyoto Station. Our tour provides a nice car for you & your family/friends to use on the way to the temple. You can also enjoy sightseeing on the way! We will walk for about 45 minutes - 1 hour through the Oku Saga Area after Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple, so you can feel a distinctive Japanese atmosphere there before reaching the Bamboo forest. After enjoying the forest, we will finish the tour on the main street of Arashiyama. Transport back to VIP station is not included, but we can advise you how to get back easily. *We recommend that you bring the following in the summer: Hats & Parasols / Sunscreen / Drinks
Tour Options
Itinerary
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple is located on the outskirts of Arashiyama. There are 1200 unique and whimsical Buddhist statues there, so it is becoming a popular spot recently. Also, since the nearby Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is one of the most famous tourist locations in Kyoto/Japan, we decided to make a Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple and Bamboo Forest tour from Kyoto Station. It's very difficult to visit by yourself on public transport, but our tour provides a nice car for you & your family/friends to go.
Travel to & seeing the world famous Bamboo Forest!
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(43)
The temple and the little statues are charming. The bamboo forest was also interesting albeit crowded (we were there around 11am on a weekday). The 30 min walk from the temple to the forest was not very interesting…
Hi Miriana, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review! We're very glad to hear you enjoyed visiting the temple and the bamboo forest. We sincerely apologize that TripAdvisor's tour description overview was vague and didn't clearly mention the walk from Otagi Temple to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. We're currently asking TripAdvisor (again) to make it more accurate and set clearer expectations for future guests, so we really appreciate your feedback. Thank you again, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your travels in Japan! -Nadya
Lana was an amazing tour guide. Extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. Highly recommend this tour!
From Lana: Thank you so much for your kind words! It was a pleasure guiding you ☺️ I also enjoyed learning from you. Thank you for sharing so many interesting stories and insights! Wishing you all the best on your travels⛩️
Awesome experience! It was a beautiful day to spend time in nature. Rena was an amazing guide and we enjoyed our time with her. Would recommend to any friends wanting to explore the area with someone knowledgeable!
From Rena - Thank you so much for the lovely review! I’m really happy I got to meet you both and spend the day together. You both had such great energy and it made the tour really fun for me too. I’m glad you enjoyed all the places we visited and the time we spent in nature. It was a beautiful day. Hope to see you again someday if you come back to Japan!
We had a wonderful tour through the Temple and Bamboo forest with a few added extras. Our guide, Rena, was a pleasure. She was very knowledgeable and had many suggestions for our family. We would highly recommend this tour for your family.
From Rena- Thank you so much for your thoughtful review. It truly means a lot to know that the tour was enjoyable for your whole family. It was my pleasure spending time with you and having the opportunity to show you around. We hope to welcome you and your family back to Japan again in the future.
I was the only person on the tour, so I ended up having a private tour with Naoki. He was very kind and extremely knowledgeable about the area. He took me around and explained the history of Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple. We took a cab up the mountainside to the temple, spent about 30–45 minutes exploring, and then hiked down toward Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Naoki never rushed the experience and patiently gave me time to take photos and videos along the way. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who wants to explore a more remote and peaceful area of Kyoto. Just be prepared to walk quite a bit during the visit.
Hi Winnie, and THANK YOU for your kind review! We are so happy that you had a good time on our Otagi Nenbutsu Tour :) We also hope you had a similarly good time on the rest of your Japan tour, and we are more than looking forward to welcoming you back one day for another of our excellent tours! Thanks again!!
Ran gave us an incredible tour of the Otagi Nenbutsu Temple and Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. He provided a lot of helpful historical context and wove in really interesting stories about Buddhism that related to our visit to the Temple. His tour during our whole time in Japan was by far our favorite, because he was so personable and could answer all of our questions that we had throughout the tour. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting to go to the Otagi Nenbutsu Temple and the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.
From Ran: Thank you very much for your kind words! I am really glad to hear that you enjoyed my explanations & stories about history & Buddhism. It means so much to me that you said this was your favorite tour in Japan so far. :) I hope you had a wonderful journey in Japan, and I look forward to meeting you again in the future!
We had a great day with Yang. He was very knowlegeable about the history and made it an adventure we won't forget!
We had the incredibly fortunate luck to have Rena as our tour guide - and she is absolutely fantastic! Rena was friendly and easy to talk to - amiably fielding all of our questions about Kyoto and throwing out pertinent bits of information as we went on our tour. This felt more like a guided tour with a friend than with a paid employee. Rena was also wonderful with our children (aged 5 and 10) and accommodating to everything we needed to make things comfortable for them. Wonderful experience in general.
From Rena: Thank you very much for your review. I’m so happy to hear that the tour felt like exploring Kyoto with a friend. That truly means a lot to me. I always try to connect with my guests and share stories and information based on what they’re interested in. It was my pleasure to guide you and your family. I hope you enjoyed Kyoto, and I’d love to see you again on your next trip to Japan!
The Tour was amazing. My wife and I can’t say enough for our guide Waka. She was very knowledgeable on the history of the sites we visited. You could ask her anything and she had the answer. The areas we visited was amazing walking through the small village and seeing the old buildings. The Temple area was very beautiful highly recommend. Also the Bamboo forest was very beautiful as far as people the temple was good for the amount of people. The Bamboo forest area was very busy if you like a more personal type of tour then this is it. We did a tour the day before with about 30 people and it was way too rushed. This Tour with Waka was at your own pace and we were never rushed.
From Waka: Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful review with me! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour and the area we walked through, which is my favorite. I also had a great time talking with you both and hearing your stories about your beautiful town in Canada. You truly made my day special, and I’m very grateful to have had you as my guests. Thank you again for your lovely message, and I hope we can meet again in Kyoto or maybe in Canada someday!! ;)
It was amazing! A must-see experience. Our guide, Yang, was incredibly kind and knowledgeable — his explanations and dedication truly made a difference in our trip to Kyoto. Highly recommended!
Dear Luzani, Thank you for your kind words in this review! It was my pleasure to guide you and make your trip in Kyoto special. Hope to see you again in the future!
