The bamboo walk is local, maybe 20 minutes to get to the 'entrance', an hour(?) to do the circle/loop, another 20min from there home. And there's some 'elevation' as they say in the cycling world--the first half of the loop is generally up, and then down.
In other seasons there are some farmers around, since to get bamboo shoots/takenoko, it needs to be cut back to stimulate/signal shoots in the spring. The second pic is like that, thinned out for the open feel, and the root structure knows to try to grow/sprout more (like Arashiyama in
Kyoto--the famous walk there is not 'natural' at all, it is very carefully cut/manicured to be that way). The first pic is uncut/uncultivated, just going wild. And it can get really thick/dense if left alone--impenetrable.
The other day about halfway thru another walker caught up with me. I tried to stay ahead when I noticed him, but he was cruising faster than I was. I like the alone-ness of the walk, and sometimes stop to just look around. But this guy was a walker, and a talker. Turned out that tho he's local, it was his first time on the loop and he didn't know where he was (or that it was a loop!), just out walking, kind of semi-lost. I tried to explain, that there were no worries, and that it was a loop (there are a couple side roads, but the main one is easy to follow, and the side roads are dead ends). We talked and talked, walking, back to the entrance, at which point he finally realized the point I was trying to make (that it was a loop). On the other hand, he was older, cruising right along for an 85-year old. (I'm 71 now.)
And coming to the end and back out, he kind of apologized and said his ears weren't very good. I thought about it, but didn't apologize for my imperfect japanese. I thought it maybe kind of dove-tailed with his hearing...!
So it was a case of two old guys meeting and talking on the road, and communicating in spite of their disabilities.