Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

The bamboo grove at Arashiyama is a corridor of towering green stalks that rise 20 metres on both sides of a curving path, creating an effect that's part cathedral, part science fiction. The sound is what gets you first — bamboo creaks and clicks in the wind like something alive — and the Japanese government has designated it as one of the '100 Soundscapes of Japan,' which is the most Japanese thing imaginable.

The grove is relatively short — you can walk through it in 15 minutes — but the density of the bamboo creates a light effect that changes throughout the day. In the morning, shafts of sunlight cut through the canopy in diagonal beams. At midday, everything is filtered green. In December, during the Arashiyama Hanatōro festival, the path is illuminated at night and the bamboo glows like a forest from a Studio Ghibli film.

The trick to enjoying Arashiyama without being trampled is timing. By 10am on any day between March and November, the path is shoulder-to-shoulder tourists moving at the speed of the slowest selfie stick. Come at 7am — or better yet, 6:30 — and you'll have the grove almost to yourself. The adjacent Tenryū-ji temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site with a 14th-century Zen garden, opens at 8:30 and is worth combining with the grove before the crowds descend.