If you make Kyoto the base and centre of your travels in Japan, there a few nice daytrips you could start from there. This would be quite smart, because the little town of Kyoto with its 1.5 million citizens attracts the incredible number of 40 million visitors a year. One of the great spots around is Arashiyama. This little town is famous for many neatly restored temples and carved stone-buddhas, which are laid at the sideways. There one thing though, that makes Arashiyama truly unique: this Bamboo forest.
If you walk deep enough, you see the trees waving slightly in the wind and you hear the wood clapping against wood. The created rhythm surely is one thing you will never forget.