travel trips to Kyoto

One-day Fall Trip to Kyoto (Part 2)

River-cruising is not so well-known to foreign tourists, but it is one of the most enjoyable attractions in Kyoto. Like a boat-ride in the Rhine, Germany, this river-cruising provides wonderful opportunities in which visitors can enjoy beautiful scenery along the Hozu/Katsura River (two names for one river), while enjoying cool (in summer) and brisk (in winter) air under the blue sky. Around the end of the cruising, interesting motorboats, which sell food, come near to your boat so that you can enjoy food and drinks while on board.

We would like to share some pictures depicting river-cruising in the Hozu/Katsura River and other pictures featuring the area called Arashiyama and Sagano, which is located in the northern part of Kyoto.

This is where you can get aboard.

The above two pictures show how the river-cruising looks, especially at its beginning. The river-cruising goes slow, but later goes through the high current. In the second picture, you can see a red train called Torokko Densha (English: a trolley train) on the upper-right corner, which runs along the river.

As the above picture shows, the current of the river gets pretty fast.

In the above two pictures again, you can see the trolley train running in the mountains along the river.

The above two pictures depict the motorboats which sell food to the passengers on board. These boats approach the river-cruising boats around the end of the cruising. They sell Oden (English:a dish containing of boiled white raddish, hard-boiled eggs, fish cake, and others), which is a traditional dish for the common Japanese, as well as Ikayaki (English: fried squid) and oranges. They sell, of course, beverages such as beer, sake (English: Japanese rice wine) , shochu (English: Japanese spirits), and soft drinks. The smell of squid fried on the spot (mixed with the soy sauce flavour) makes it very difficult for the passengers to resist the temptation.

The above two pictures show how the disembarking area looks in Arashiyama. There is a hiking path along the river.

This picture shows Arashiyama area, where the passengers disembark. You can see rickshaw lining up along the street (under the pine tree in the picture). You can explore Arashiyama in the rickshaw.

This is the famous bridge "Togetsubashi" or Togetsu Bridge, over the Hozu/Katsura river.