Arashiyama is where Kyoto goes to look at its own scenery, and it has earned the right: a bamboo grove, a fourteenth-century garden, and a bridge over a river that comes down out of a gorge. Four kilometres, and the whole thing turns on getting there early.
Start from Saga-Arashiyama and go straight to the Sagano Chikurin, the take (bamboo) grove, before nine — by mid-morning it's a procession, and the point of the place is the sound, not the selfie. From the grove drop into Tenryu-ji, the head Zen -ji (temple) of the district, whose teien (garden) was designed to pull the mountains into the view and still does. Look in at Nonomiya-jinja on the way for its black wooden torii.
Then down to the Togetsukyo, the moon-crossing bridge, with the Hozu river coming through the hills above it. Cross, then follow the bank upstream toward the monkey park — you needn't climb it. End at the Randen tram terminus and ride the little line home.
