The next location in this itinerary is Tenryu-ji Temple. For the best experience in terms of crowds, I recommend to manage your time in such a way that you arrive 📍HERE at least 1 hour before Tenryu-ji closes.

Right now I highly recommend you to read the description of Tenryu-ji first, and then come back to these notes to fully understand the advise I am about to give.

First of all, visit to Tenryu-ji Halls is absolutely optional, but if you want to go for it, be sure to enter the Halls FIRST, and only then proceed to the Garden.

After your visit to Tenryu-ji Halls, you will need to enter the Garden through 📍HERE. Enjoy your time in the Garden for as long as you like, but you will need to exit the Garden from 📍different location. This way you will exit the garden and to your left you will find the main part of Bamboo grove.

My recommendation is to visit it 1 hour before the sunset (google the sunset time on the day of your visit). It still will have some people over there but it will be at least twice (probably even three times) less crowded compared to peak hours. Of course you can try and go there early in the morning, but here is the thing - I have checked this place multiple times (different seasons as well) at 5:30 am, and everytime it had some people walking there already. Personally I do not think that it is worth it waking up at 4 am for this experience (unless you have a massive jetlag and cannot sleep anyway), but that is just my subjective opinion.