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You think of Japan, and imagine its bamboo forests. However, of forests, there is one that almost no one knows about and that few tourists visit: it is the Kimono Forest, is located at Arashiyama and reaching it is very simple.
Not far from Kyoto, Arashiyama it is an important and popular tourist destination; included among the Cultural Properties of Japan, it stands at the foot of Mount Arashi and is the ideal place to admire the cherry trees in bloom (in spring) and the maples in autumn. Here, tourists come mainly to admire its bamboo forest and a temple, the Gio-ji Temple, which is at the center of a legend, told in the epic poem “History of Heike”, written in the 14th century.
But it is precisely in Arashiyama that the original Kimono Forest is located: a short walk is enough to leave the classic tourist destinations and find yourself immersed in its enchanted atmosphere, made of charm and silence. Chances are, this is where you happen to be the only tourists, surrounded only by girls in traditional clothes and by local people, intent on walking among the non-trees of this forest.
The Kimono Forest of Arashiyama is a very colorful and geometrically perfect place: 600 transparent cylinders they make up a path that winds sinuous, composing a pattern of shades and geometries. Because, as the name suggests, they are contained inside those cylinders tessuti acrilici in stile Kyo-Yuzen, the traditional technique used for dyeing kimonos.
How do you get to Kimono Forest? Although it is little frequented, reaching it is not difficult. It is indeed found near the Arashiyama tram station, on the Keifuku Randen Tram Line, just off the city's main street and not far from Tenryu-ji Temple. From here you can take the characteristic purple tram, the Randen, which connects the Sagano area and the bamboo forest to the area of the UNESCO-protected temples, starting with that wonderful Golden Temple which is one of the most beautiful in the the whole of Japan.
