Always looking for new places to visit here in Japan. Especially those right underneath my nose! The thing about here, is that most folks flock to the places that are for lack of a better word, "brand famous". They see them on tv, with talented folks visiting them, touting how great this hot spring is, how great this food dish is. So, when they have the free time, that's where they go.
Case in point: I recently asked where a good place to go visit a bamboo forest would be. I'm a huge fan of bamboo, find it quite fascinating. Actually, it's all over the place - I can walk 5 minutes from my fiancee's house and there's a huge forest of it, albeit private property. So! What I wanted was a place with a path to walk along. And a bit surprisingly, none of my Japanese friends I asked knew of any nearby.
Cue the foreigner request! I recently met up with some American friends for a nomikai last weekend, when I found out about a nearby temple, Jokoji Shrine, not 30 minutes from where I'm staying. Hopped on the train to visit there, and it was like being whisked away to a completely different place. Essentially, Jokoji is a large buddhist temple that sits atop a mountain, complete with a large bamboo forest on the side of the hill.
The temple itself was very similar to most others: absolutely beautiful. It's hard to describe how peaceful these places are if you've never visited one. Totally recommend it, though.
As for the bamboo forest? Stunning. Just wanted to bring it home with me.
