Early start... It’s 9am - on our way to river boat cruise.
Got lost along the way, took the wrong bus and we had to stop and re-orient ourselves! We lost 2 hours of time 😅
It’s now almost 11am so in order to keep cool, gladly there are convenience stores in every block.
We grabbed some snacks and fave matcha drink!
Dad decided to take the cab as last resort as he noticed we were headed towards the opposite direction! 😂
Wow that was a burn in taxi fare but at least we were now where we should be... wheww!
We were up for a train ride and a river cruise. So please don’t ask me why they called it a romantic train ride... i’d say great marketting!
We first grabbed a bite since it was lunch time already. Kids having a go how locals eat their rice in a bowl.
Tried the wagyu beef and the cali-like alcoholic citrus.
Then while still waiting for the romantic train ride, we binge for more sugar 😅
Btw, this is Dad’s name written in local characters.
Boarded the romantic train and some random shots ... as to romance? Still a fantastic marketting strategy. 😅
After 15mins of romantic train ride, we took the bus on the way to the river cruise.
At this point, feeling tired already! Opposite to the romance I was imagining hahaha!
So about the river cruise - but first about the boat... it was a traditional river cruise with no motor and only using a canoe to cruise the 16kms river path!!!! We spent almost 2 hours seated as we were entertained by 3 strong men taking turns navigating the boat of about 20 tourists!
😎
And for the sightseeing experience, i’d say it was truly entertaining but personally I thought it was too long. It could have been shorter as the rapids, bumps, and scenes became repetitive halfway of the cruise! Also it became a bit chilly towards the other half of the leg.
Some notable scenes were the gorilla rock, old hanging bridge, bumpy rapids, and the romantic train crossing 😃
Another entertaining factor was the floating convenience store available upon approaching the end of the cruise. Everybody were starving!
Upon arrival at the end of the downstream, we were back at the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.
We spent more than an hour strolling within the forest and got lost again finding this sushi place that Dad was looking for via an app!
We ended up choosing the most convenient place to grab a bite as kids were saying they were hungry (it was already 7pm) 😔
The food was good but the serving size was not fantastic!
On the dish were horse meat, mackarel, karage chicken, edamame, chicken skin, gizzard, and alcoholic lychee.... 😆
What a day filled with walking, getting lost, keeping cool, eating, and more walking!