Private Dawn Walk through Arashiyama’s Bamboo Grove

Before the tour buses arrive, a private guide leads you into the towering Arashiyama bamboo grove at first light, the stalks creaking and the path empty.

You continue to the meditation garden of a Zen temple as the mist lifts off the hills, then down to the Ōigawa river where boatmen pole their craft through the gorge — the whole of celebrated Arashiyama experienced in the stillness it deserves.