After three exhausting days in Osaka {mainly due to jet lag…}, we spent two relaxing days in Arashima and finally reached one of the destinations most identified with Japan in my opinion, and in general – Kyoto. This city has completely surpassed my expectations. On the one hand, when we visited the ancient areas there, I felt as if we had just entered a Hollywood movie set, and particularly into the Memoirs of a Geisha movie {after all, it was filmed exactly there 😉 }. The wooden houses, the thousands of magnificent temples, the powerful nature and the well-tended Zen gardens – it's unbelievable that this traditional part of Japan is so well-kept! And on the other hand – the modernization. I had no idea that Kyoto, apart from being the historic capital of Japan, is also a bustling metropolis with hundreds of shops, international chains and restaurants.
There’s no doubt that Kyoto has succeeded in impressing me in reality even more than I imagined …
There are so many things to see, do and eat in Kyoto, but since we only had three and a half days in this amazing city, it was clear to us that we couldn’t get to see everything the city has to offer. Despite the rainy weather, due to the right planning, flexibility and a great private guided tour provided by FURYU, we were able to get a first taste of the city that made us fantasize about the next time we’ll come back to visit it again {by the way, even when we visit next time it’s clear that we won’t be able to do everything! Kyoto is just one of those places you can visit again and again and every time you can discover something new!}.
The things that Daniel and I did during our first visit in Kyoto and the area were carefully selected after many searches online and consultation with the travel company FURYU, which offers private tours all over Japan. If you’re planning a trip to Kyoto, this is a list that’s really worth pinning to your Pinterest account 😉
ARASHIYAMA AND THE BAMBOO GROVE
Our trip to Kyoto began with two full days in the area of Arashima, which is only half an hour's drive from the center of Kyoto, and is best known for its magnificent bamboo forest. Most tourists who visit Kyoto stay in the city center and come for a short visit to the famous bamboo forest without being aware of all the magical things that this pastoral mountainous area holds. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we would’ve been on the same famous tourist route if we hadn’t chosen to stay at the Suiran a Luxury Collection Hotel in the center of that town. As expected from any popular tourist attraction, especially one that’s really good for Instragram pictures, Arashima is also filled with tourists between the late morning and early evening and loses some of its magical tranquility. Fortunately, during the two days we spent in the city we managed to almost completely escape from the tourist load and enjoy the authentic village experience of the town, to drink great coffee on the banks of the Huzo River, to visit the small temples scattered on the forested hills and to stroll around in the magnificent Zen gardens.
Since I usually don’t like to go according to touristy checklists when I travel the world, the things we did in Arashima were just as amazing to me as other popular tourist attractions in the city. If you also want to deviate from the usual tourist route, I highly recommend reading the full post I devoted to the area of Arashima 🙂
GION
Our first stop in the center of Kyoto was Gion – the famous Geisha district. This historic area is divided into charming alleys in ancient low wooden buildings, beautiful gardens, ancient tea houses, restaurants and of course many shops. Once Gion was THE place to watch real Geishas {or rather, as they are called in Kyoto – Geiko or Maiko, for the young trainees} walk around during the day. But over the years it became harder to find them. Although we saw a lot of people dressed in a traditional kimono with neat hair, most of them were simply tourists, like us, who decided to take advantage of their visit to the city and dress up as one of Japan's most famous culture symbols 🙂 It sounds a bit like a tourist thing that destroys the authentic part of the city, but honestly, I actually thought it added to the atmosphere and I was pretty upset that I didn’t have time to do it myself {because the weather wasn’t great on the day I planned on dressing up :/…}. And still, we encountered real Geikos several times, especially when we were walking around Gion in the dusk when they were making their way to work in the tea houses.
After wandering through the alleys of Gion, which included a lot of shopping for traditional souvenirs, we suddenly ran into a café devoted entirely to my favorite Japanese figure – Hello Kitty! Daniel knew there was no point in objecting and we went straight into the Hello Kitty kingdom of food. The coffee shop, Hello Kitty Saryo in Kyoto, is located in a traditional Japanese tea house and serves Japanese cuisine, all with the famous cat character. As soon as they sat us down at the table, they put a huge Hello Kitty doll next to me to accompany our meal and it was the cutest ever – or as the Japanese like to say “Kawaiiii!” 🙂 The prices, as expected, were a bit more expensive than other restaurants, but it surprised me that the things we ordered weren’t only super sweet and perfect – but they were also delicious!
YASAKA SHRINE
The first stop on our guided tour of Kyoto was the Yasaka Shrine, also known as the Temple of Gion. It’s one of the most famous temples in Kyoto and is located between the Gion district and the Higashiyama district.
After walking around the temple gardens and the beautiful buildings, and receiving an interesting explanation about the significance of the buildings, the nature of the ritualism of the temple and the hundreds of lanterns in the central square, we continued on to the Higashiyama district. Like Gion, it’s also considered one of the city's most preserved historical quarters. The paths are narrow, the buildings are low and traditional, and there you can also find dozens of stores that sell traditional Japanese goods such as sweets, pickles and handcrafts.
A super special coffee shop you can find in the area, not far from Sananzaka, is a new branch of Starbucks, which opened just a few months ago in a two-story Japanese house built 100 years ago and decorated in a Japanese style with traditional tatami rooms. Simply glocalization at its best.
KIYOMIZUDERA TEMPLE
From the alleys of Higashiyama we continued on to another magnificent temple known as the “Pure Water Temple”, known as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The uniqueness of this temple is that it stands on forested hills on the eastern side of the city and enables you to see the city from its large and famous wooden terrace. When you get down from the balcony you can sip the pure water from the waterfall, from which the temple’s name is derived, which is attributed to many healing properties. The only downfall to visiting this temple was the fact that it is under renovations for a long time, and therefore its beautiful façade is hidden. And yet, the scenery from it is so charming it’s well worth the visit now too 🙂
KINKAKU-JI TEMPLE – THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
We arrived at the Kinkaku-ji temple in the afternoon, when it was already full of tourists crowded everywhere. Despite it being so busy, I was glad we didn’t skip this attraction because the sight of the golden temple and its reflection in the lake was so beautiful, almost surrealistic.
The original temple, built in 1937, was burned down in the 1950s by one of the monks of the temple and the reconstructed building is actually relatively new and was built only five years later. I was a little disappointed when our guide told us that the exterior walls of the reconstructed temple weren’t really covered with real gold, but they certainly created the desired ‘wow effect' in this structure. The temple is surrounded by a beautiful garden and there’s even a small tea house. After we left the temple, the guide took us to a side alley where there was a small ice cream shop which sells excellent vanilla ice cream, which also had a coated golden leaf.
FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE
The last stop on our private tour day was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and to be honest, it was also one of the places I most regretted not getting up early to get there before it was filled with hundreds of tourists. I get very annoyed by places crowded with tourists. Especially places where the tourists can actually reduce the intensity of the experience in the place, which was exactly the case in Fushimi Inari. The intensity of the missed opportunity in this case is a bit greater than in other temples that we visited because this temple is open 24/7. So, if you plan to get there and you also get bummed out being surrounded by masses of tourists you have 3 options: 1. Get up early and go there before it gets packed. 2. Go after sunset. 3. Climb up the mountain where most tourists don’t get to {after all, it's a 4 km route}.
And now, a bit about the shrine itself…
Fushimi Inari Shrine, located on the slopes of Mount Inari in southern Kyoto, is the temple for the Shinto god of rice. The temple, which won the number one attraction in Kyoto according to TripAdvisor {I already told you that there’s a crazy number of tourists, right?}, is famous for its thousands of orange-red torii gates that surround the long paths in the temple’s area. Each of the gates in the temple was donated by Japanese businesses, and they say that there are ten thousand gates! And honestly – this is the most famous attraction in Kyoto because if you manage to take a picture there without the masses of tourists in the background, you get an amazing picture! 😉
LUNCH AT HAFUU RESTAURANT
One of the best meat meals we ate in Kyoto, and in Japan in general, was at Hafuu Restaurant. The restaurant combines the tradition of Japanese cuisine with a modern atmosphere and serves the best Wagyu meat I've ever had and super tasty side dishes.
A HALF-DAY TRIP TO NARA
Nara, oh, Nara… What a magical place! From the moment I heard that there’s a city near Kyoto with deer roaming around {Bambies!!} freely throughout the city, I knew that there’s no chance that we would skip visiting there.
The day we planned on going to Nara was a rather gray day and I was very worried that it would start raining and I would miss one of the things I really wanted to experience on the trip – meeting Bambi face to face! We decided to take a chance and go to Nara, which is a 45-minute train ride from central Kyoto.
We told ourselves that whatever will happen – at least we tried! 🙂
We reached the central station in Nara and from there we hopped into a taxi that took us directly to the park to save as much time as possible on the road, and to take advantage of the fact that the weather was still pleasant. Even before the taxi driver stopped in the main square of the park, just outside the entrance to the temples of the city, I saw the deer by the roadside and felt as if we had just stepped into a Disney movie. The second we got out of the cab, we bought a stock of special crackers to feed the deer, and immediately a large group of deer gathered around us and tried to grab the crackers from our hands. Believe me, those Bambies aren’t suckers 😉
Anyway, the encounter with these long-lashed magical creatures was magical at levels I can’t even describe in words! We spent about an hour and a half with them in the park and then it started drizzling and we realized that it was our sign to move toward the temples… The problem was that as the rain grew stronger, all the other tourists in Nara also decided to visit the temples, so it was super crowded. We visited the city’s most famous Buddhist temple, the Todai-ji Temple, and after that we decided to leave because we already felt like we had seen enough temples and it was time to return to Kyoto and get to the last attraction we wanted to visit during this trip…
NISHIKI FOOD MARKET
The Nishiki market is a huge market with a history of several hundred years, which includes over 100 shops and restaurants and is known as “The Kitchen of Kyoto”. The bustling market life of Kyoto is a must-see for food lovers who come to town and is especially suited for visiting on rainy days since it’s covered. In Nishiki you can find all the traditional food and delicacies of Kyoto – from exotic vegetables and spectacular fruits, through Asian spices, special pickles, tofu and fresh fish, sushi, and to Japanese green tea and sweets! We began our visit in Nishiki with grapefruit juice with alcohol, served right in the grapefruit which was refreshing and excellent. We walked around the various stands, tasted a huge variety of dishes and enjoyed every moment!
After eating like crazy, we left the market and went to one of the alleys nearby, where we came across an amazing bakery named HEART BREAD ANTIQUE {there are other branches in Tokyo}. We couldn’t hold ourselves back and we tasted some salty and sweet delicacies, and they were all wonderful. It’s highly recommended!
Which of the things you read on this post make you want to visit Kyoto the most?
And if you've been to Kyoto – write your recommendations for the city in the comments below! 🙂
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2 Responses
How many days did you when to kyoto? Amazing post! Thank you.
Thanks 🙂
2 nights in Arashiyama + 3 nights in central Kyoto