Arashiyama is one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far in my life.
On Sunday 4/3, two of the Doshisha girls took us to Arashiyama by train (it didn't take super long) to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. It was the first beautiful day after a period of bad weather and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, so it was really crowded at Arashiyama that day. We first went to Monkey Park, but we passed by that body of water on the way (picture above). The place was gorgeous!
It was a long hike up to Monkey Park, but the trail was surrounded by a lot of tall trees. Once we got to the top, we saw a lot of monkeys (the ones in the monkey house were kind of aggressive!) and an amazing view of Kyoto :)
We also went through the bamboo forest.. it felt really nice and cool walking along that path. The pictures in my guide book look better though :/
We got to this place with the temple and pond. All the sakura trees were in full bloom around the temple.. the place itself was amazingly picturesque!
So, so beautiful! I don't know what else to say. :D