Kyoto is one of those destinations that has so many great sight you need some serious time there so we decided to make sure we gave it the justice it deserved, planning a full week's stay. This was the first time since Australia we had stopped in one place for more than three days, so we were looking forward to staying put and really having the time to get under the skin of the place.
With our good friend Julia joining us again, we were all looking forward to exploring the sights of Kyoto. We met at the station and headed off to find the bus to our AirBnB apartment, located close to the Imperial Palace.
Kyoto was much larger than any of us were expecting, so much so that whilst on the bus catching up, we suddenly had an awkward feeling that we might have been travelling for too long and we had gone well past our stop. After trying to work out which stop we were at, which was pretty much impossible as all the stop names were very similar and annoying the driver, we jumped off just in case, only to discover there was still 5 stops to go! We had underestimated the size of this city!
This continued as we went through the week, realising that by the end of our time in Kyoto it would have been much better for us to split the city into manageable areas and focus our days around these rather than just 'going where we wanted to go'. So for anyone going to Kyoto - check out our itinerary tips at the bottom of the page.
Exploring nearby Nara
Our first day in Kyoto, ironically wasn't spent in Kyoto! We headed off for a day trip to the nearby town of Nara which is famous for its shrines and deer, via the private Kintetsu railway line. Nara's Parkland (Nara-Koen) is where the majority of the sights are found, including the hundreds of deer which patrol the area, most of them hanging out near the tourists hot spots to see if they can get some food.
The deer were very confident and if you had any sign of a deer cake (on sale nearby) in your hand it wouldn't be there for very long!
We enjoyed wandering the parkland, stopping to have lunch amongst the cherry blossoms surrounding the lake, watching the painters, wedding photo shoots taking place and saying hello to the many deer along the way.
We also stumbled across the Tourist Centre which Chris remembered from his previous trip. It contained an earthquake simulator, giving you the opportunity to experience what an earthquake in Japan would be like. The purpose of the centre was to show how to make buildings earthquake proof. So there were interesting models and even a cut out area of the building which showed the technology in action. Oh and of course there is free tea and coffee...
The main sights of Nara are Todai-ji and its famous Daibutsu Hall which houses the Great Buddha. The hall is the largest wooden building in the world (according to Lonely Planet!) and incredibly the current structure is a mere two-thirds of the size of the original!
The Buddha itself is over 16m tall, cast in 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold. It is one big Buddha.
Within the hall we also found a wooden column with a hole through its base.It is believed that those that can squeeze through the hole (which is apparently the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils) are ensured of enlightenment! We joined the queue of children and a few brave adults and waited our turn to reach enlightenment. Both Julia and Julia managed to get through with relative ease - there was a knack to getting the hips through sideways - and Chris started to have a go but quickly realised getting stuck in the middle of a wooden column which holds up the largest wooden building in the world wasn't a good idea!
There were plenty of other shrines to see which we didn't have time to go into, but we did enjoy the beautiful walk back down to town from Kasuga Taisha Shrine, with its pathway lined with hundreds of stone moss-covered lanterns.
Having got the train back to Kyoto, we had read about the Kiyomizu-dera temple being lit up at night during cherry blossom season and headed over to experience one of Kyoto's greatest temples as it grew dark.
With its commanding position over Kyoto and built around a holy spring, the temple is one of the more spectacular, famous and therefore popular sights to see. It was beautiful to see lit up at night, with views back over the city, and the vivid colours of the buildings against the black/blue sky.
Birthday celebrations
Our second day was a special one indeed! It was Chris' 30th Birthday. So he woke to a morning of fried breakfast (Japan sadly doesn't do baked beans!), balloons and presents. We headed out to the Imperial Palace Park and set up for our first Hanami (Cherry Blossom viewing party - aka picnic under the blossom). With beers and sushi we found a perfect spot under a sweeping blossom tree to sit back and celebrate.
We then headed north-west to the Kinkaku-ji temple - the golden temple - which seemed very apt for a big birthday celebration! This glistening temple is one of the most impressive structures in Kyoto. Built in 1397 as a retirement villa for Ashikaga Yoshi-mitsu it was eventually converted into a Buddhist temple on his death. The original building was burnt down some years ago as the monk in charge wanted to keep it for himself and didn't want to share its beauty, but they soon rebuilt it. The three story pavilion is covered in gold leaf, and surrounded by a lovely lake and gardens. The building glistening in the sunshine with its reflection in the water is one of those magical images that lodges itself in your memory.
It was here that we met up with Chris' sister Sarah and her friend who had arrived from Tokyo to join in the celebrations. With quite the party crew in tow we headed over to the other side of town to Maruyama-koen, a park well known for its cherry blossom parties.
We found a spot among the locals and set up our own Hanami party, with birthday balloons, more beer and delicious birthday cake (thanks to Sarah) and enjoyed toasting Chris' 30 years whilst watched the sunset over the park.
After wandering through the park and seeing the centre point and the shidare-zakura old weeping cherry tree, we headed to Ponto-Cho street. Running just behind the Kamo-gawa river, it is a narrow street lined with small local restaurants, and this was were we found ourselves sitting down for dinner.
Sarah, with her invaluable Japanese experience ordered a variety of local dishes for us to share - we left it to her as we had not idea. The food was delicious and sharing a variety made for a great cosy evening sitting on Takami mats round the low tables.
We couldn't come to Japan and not experience the local fad of Karaoke! So, today of all days was the perfect opportunity to get our vocal-chords out. Sarah found a great Karaoke place just round the corner from the restaurant, with all you can drink. Karaoke in Japan isn't the daunting public experience we know in the UK, it's all about 'room hire', so you hire a room for a period of time and sing until you can't take any more!
So with drinks a-plenty and a range of tunes lined up on the screen, the microphone got an ear full and a half from us all! It was great fun and all in our own little Karaoke bubble - luckily we couldn't remember much of the singing quality the next morning!
Great walks of Kyoto
With the birthday boy feeling a little worse for wear the next day, the Julias headed out to see the Bamboo Grove in Arashiyama - west of Kyoto. Within the bus network or easily accessible by train, this was a great place for a morning exploration.
Walking through this forest of Bamboo is like walking into another world. The winding path heads upwards with towering green spires that seem to endlessly extend upwards to the sky.
The light bouncing between the stems is quite magical and mysterious. It is really hard to capture in photographs just how magnificent the walk is. You can't help but walk with your head facing up to the sky, feeling like Jack at the bottom of the beanstalk.
After an enjoyable amble with Chris' Sister and her friend, we caught the bus back over to the opposite side of town and to another iconic area of Kyoto city - The Philosopher's Walk.
The Philosopher's Walk is one of the most stunning spots to see Sakura (cherry blossom) and Julia and Julia instantly fell in love. This cherry-tree lined canal was a corridor of beautiful powdery light pink blooms, looking like cotton candy.
We meandered down the canal stopping at the small stone bridges over the water to capture and take in this magical season which only lasts for around 2 weeks of the year. Having chased down the blossom in many of the places we had visited in Japan, this spot was firmly rooted right up top! It was beautiful (minus the crowds!).
Chris having come down with the flu - he must have drunk more than we thought the night before -dosed himself up and came to meet us at the end of the walk, where we continued southwards towards some of the temples found in this area. We ended up wandering in (sneakily at the end of the day) to Eikan-do temple, which had a beautiful garden and Taho-to pagoda up the mountainside behind.
Before ending up at the San-mon Gate, a large wooden gate which fronts the Nanzen-Ji temple complex. This complex has a range of Zen temples and sub-temples which warrants some time to explore up and around the main Hojo Hall, particularly to stumble across the large aqueduct which feels totally out of place!
We said our sad goodbye's to Sarah and her friend who were heading back to Tokyo and with this also being Julia's last night in Kyoto too, we headed down to experience the night-time street scenes of Shimbashi-dori, another beautifully old house-lined street with small canal and of course more cherry blossom!
Ultimately ending up in the area of downtown called Gion. Gion is famous for its entertainment and Geisha quarter on the eastern bank of the Kamo-gawa river and a great place to wander at night. Originally known for its tea-houses catering for weary visitors to a nearby shrine, now its famous Hanami-koji street is lined with 17th century restaurants and tea-houses and home to many of the Geisha entertainment shows put on by local Geisha groups during key seasons of the year.
We wandered down the street and made a note of the timings and costs for the shows for another evening...we felt we couldn't miss it with all the posters and lanterns advertising it!
Our evening drew to a close at a well known restaurant (Issen Yoshoku) famous for its Japanese dish, Okonomiyaki. We each ordered this pancake-like dish filled with cabbage, egg, noodles and soy and mayonnaise topping and sat down at a table with a lovely Japanese couple and an extra friend in the corner...
A day off
Our fourth day in Kyoto was a welcome rest day. The heavens opened as we said goodbye to Julia who was heading off to explore the areas of Japan we had already come from. Chris' flu had taken hold and the jammed-packed days of walking and late nights had taken their toll. It was time for a day off! We felt a lot less guilty given it was raining all day, and enjoyed a lie in, some planning time and curling up under the duvet up with a movie.
Zen-time
Well rested, but with Chris still recovering from illness, we thought it was time for a bit of zen... so we went off to find some zen temples and exploring the north-west area of Kyoto. Here can be found a range of zen temples and gardens, the most famous of which is Ryoan-ji.
The rock garden at Ryoan-ji is one of the most famous images of Kyoto. The garden is an oblong of raked stone gravel with a collection of 15 rocks carefully placed to look like they are drifting in the sea of gravel. Designed to reveal the simplicity and harmony of the principles of zen meditation. Despite the crowds of people, once you've squeezed into a little spot to sit on the wooden ledge of the platform overlooking garden it is a mesmerizing sight and very calming on the eyes and mind.
We continued with our day of zen, at the Daitoku-ji temple complex. Like a separate little world within Kyoto, this walled complex of temples was great for a slow paced wander through the walled lanes to explore some of the temples within the complex and their zen rock-gardens. The complex was free to wander around, but to go inside the temples themselves it was around 400-600 yuen for each one.
We started our exploration at Obai-in temple. Open only at certain times of the year, we had read that this was an interesting world of interlinked gardens and one to see if we were lucky enough to be there when it was open - and we were!
It was undergoing renovation, so the famous rock garden in the centre of the main hall of the temple wasn't open, but the walk round the corridors and through the rooms that had been filled with modern art was really interesting to see. We enjoyed pausing and taking in the views of the mossy gardens from the covered walkways and veranda of the main hall.
Our next stop was the small but intimate Zuiho-in. The main rock garden of this temple was quite striking and Julia's favorite. It was a really attractive and appealing garden, with raked gravel revealing very distinctive, beautiful waves. The grounds were quiet, and sitting on the veranda we were approached by the lead monk from the temple who wanted to help Chris with his sitting posture - speaking only Japanese, the easiest way was to push and pull him into shape!
The back rock garden also had been rearranged to reflect the temple's 16th century Christian daimyo (domain lord) Otomo Sorin, with rocks arranged to the shape of a crucifix.
We passed by Koto-in temple, known to be quite special in the autumn season but also for its fine bamboo grove. We popped in to see this along the moss-lined entrance path, but decided not to go in and head onto the most well known of the temples in the complex; Daisen-in.
Daisen-in has two areas of zen gardens within it. The main garden was a large oblong raked gravel garden with two piles of raked stones - like cones of salt. The second had a range of stones and trees said to represent and express various spectacles of nature. This iconic garden sadly banned photography, so we don't have any photos, but the simplicity of this garden was quite unique.
We had had our fill of zen by this point, and Chris wanted to see the Bamboo Grove which he had missed out on earlier in the week. So we jumped on the bus to enjoy a short wander through the grove before heading back to the apartment for a dinner of comfort food - Dominos take-away pizza! We needed an early night as tomorrow we needed to wake early for our day trip to Mt Yoshino, which you can read about on our separate post.
Geisha and Kimonos
Having decided to stay an extra few days in Kyoto - we decided against going to Osaka - we had to move to another place to stay which ended up being a great little apartment close to the Kiyomizu-dera temple we had seen on day one. Located close to the Gion district, it meant it was a great opportunity for us to try to get tickets to one of the Geisha shows we had seen advertised in the week.
Julia headed down to get tickets whilst Chris checked us out of our accommodation. Getting tickets was done in a very Japanese organised fashion (or maybe they had visited Wimbledon), with queue cards and a specific waiting area depending on the type of tickets you wanted to buy! It did however mean it was very easy to get the tickets and within 10 minutes of the ticket booth opening we had a pair of seats to Mitako Odori later than afternoon.
We spent the day doing the southern Higashiyama walk, which started right by our new accommodation. Walking down the small quaint streets we came across lots of Japanese, and even some westerners in their Kimonos, which seemed to be a popular thing to do.
There were many shops offering hair, makeup, kimonos and even photo shoots in the area, and women were tottering around up and down the small narrow lanes of Ishibei-koji in these colourful outfits. They were certainly dressed for the area and helped to bring a unique and authentic feel to the area.
We stopped for lunch in a little park area, with more kimono photoshoots going on, and made war with a very confident pigeon who came very close to eating our lunch, but Julia ran after it to the amusement of the Japanese and scared it off. We continued along the walk heading down towards Maruyama-koen which we walked through to get to Chion-in temple.
Called by some as 'the Vatican of pure land Buddhism' the vast Chion-in temple was sadly covered for renovation - and when we say covered - it had a whole building built over the top of it! We enjoyed walking up through the grand San-mon gate entrance and wandered round the grounds before moving onward. I'm certain this temple would have been spectacular to see inside had it not been under wraps.
We headed north towards the towering steel Torii gate which straddles the route up to Heian-jingu shrine. Built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto, the shrine buildings are a colourful replica of the Imperial Court Palace. The gardens are supposed to the worth the entrance fee but we didn't have time and had to make a bee-line back to Gion for our afternoon's entertainment at Miyako Odori.
Presented by the Gion Kobu geisha district, the show we chose was listed as the best geisha performance to see. We had gone for non-reserved tickets so arrived early to get to the front of the non-reserved benches that were in the upper-circle of the theatre.
The show was quite a spectacle of colour and music. With 10 or so Geisha dressed musicians lining each side of the stage singing and performing with instruments, and at times more than 25 Geisha's dancing on the stage, it was a beautiful array of performance and story. We followed part of the story (I think) but mostly just sat back and enjoyed taking all the graceful movements and costumes in. If you are in Kyoto when the Geisha shows are on - go!
We ended our evening at a small local Ramen restaurant that had built up quite a reputation on trip advisor. So much so we were in a queue for a table/spot at the bar with 7 groups ahead of us! Given it was our last chance for an authentic Japanese meal before leaving the country we decided to wait... it ended up that we waited over an hour, and whilst waiting they had to turn away any new customers as they realised they would run out of Ramen soup (at least it was popular so we knew it should be worth the wait!)
It was worth the wait! We tucked into a deliciously creamy bowl of pork ramen soup and savoured our last Japanese meal at an authentic Japanese restaurant run by two lovely ladies.
The torii walk
Our final day in Japan had arrived, we checked out and left our bags at the free luggage storage offered by our accommodation (a great additional service!) near the station and headed off to the see the last great sight of Kyoto - Fushimi-Inari-Taisha - the great Shinto Shrine walk.
Possibly one of the most visually spectacular sites in Japan, this shrine has thousands (literally thousands) of torii gates lined up along paths that weave their way up the mountainside. It was really easy to reach by train, and we jumped off to see the main hall before heading up the hillside walking through the iconic red gates.
We managed to do the full 4km circular walk right up to the top of the mountain, and loved wandering up and back down the paths covered by the gates. Each torri was painted in the iconic red, with black feet and inscribed on the reverse (visible as you walk down the mountain) with Japanese and some English writing - presumably with the names of those that had donated a torri gate.
Along the walk there are hundreds of stone foxes and wooden charms. The fox being considered the messenger of the Inari - the god of cereals - and the symbol of the mountain.
The walk was a great way to spend an afternoon and probably one of the most memorable sights in Japan so a fabulous end to our time in this fascinating country.
We headed back to the train station and with our backpacks in tow, we jumped on a train to Nagoya and the Central International Airport where we would be spending the night. Sadly, the trains didn't start early enough for our flight at 7am so we spent our last few hours in Japan, curled up on the benches outside the tourist centre of the arrivals area in the airport. Surprisingly, we got an good sleep. At 6am we were able to access departures to check-in and board our flight...onward to Shanghai and China!
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| Julia, Julia and Chris under the cherry blossom |
With our good friend Julia joining us again, we were all looking forward to exploring the sights of Kyoto. We met at the station and headed off to find the bus to our AirBnB apartment, located close to the Imperial Palace.
Kyoto was much larger than any of us were expecting, so much so that whilst on the bus catching up, we suddenly had an awkward feeling that we might have been travelling for too long and we had gone well past our stop. After trying to work out which stop we were at, which was pretty much impossible as all the stop names were very similar and annoying the driver, we jumped off just in case, only to discover there was still 5 stops to go! We had underestimated the size of this city!
This continued as we went through the week, realising that by the end of our time in Kyoto it would have been much better for us to split the city into manageable areas and focus our days around these rather than just 'going where we wanted to go'. So for anyone going to Kyoto - check out our itinerary tips at the bottom of the page.
Exploring nearby Nara
Our first day in Kyoto, ironically wasn't spent in Kyoto! We headed off for a day trip to the nearby town of Nara which is famous for its shrines and deer, via the private Kintetsu railway line. Nara's Parkland (Nara-Koen) is where the majority of the sights are found, including the hundreds of deer which patrol the area, most of them hanging out near the tourists hot spots to see if they can get some food.
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| Hello! |
The deer were very confident and if you had any sign of a deer cake (on sale nearby) in your hand it wouldn't be there for very long!
We enjoyed wandering the parkland, stopping to have lunch amongst the cherry blossoms surrounding the lake, watching the painters, wedding photo shoots taking place and saying hello to the many deer along the way.
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| Cherry Blossom! |
The main sights of Nara are Todai-ji and its famous Daibutsu Hall which houses the Great Buddha. The hall is the largest wooden building in the world (according to Lonely Planet!) and incredibly the current structure is a mere two-thirds of the size of the original!
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| The Daibutu Hall |
The Buddha itself is over 16m tall, cast in 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold. It is one big Buddha.
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| That's one big Buddha |
Within the hall we also found a wooden column with a hole through its base.It is believed that those that can squeeze through the hole (which is apparently the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils) are ensured of enlightenment! We joined the queue of children and a few brave adults and waited our turn to reach enlightenment. Both Julia and Julia managed to get through with relative ease - there was a knack to getting the hips through sideways - and Chris started to have a go but quickly realised getting stuck in the middle of a wooden column which holds up the largest wooden building in the world wasn't a good idea!
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| Julia half way through |
There were plenty of other shrines to see which we didn't have time to go into, but we did enjoy the beautiful walk back down to town from Kasuga Taisha Shrine, with its pathway lined with hundreds of stone moss-covered lanterns.
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| A nice walk even if you cannot go into the shrine |
Having got the train back to Kyoto, we had read about the Kiyomizu-dera temple being lit up at night during cherry blossom season and headed over to experience one of Kyoto's greatest temples as it grew dark.
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| Stunning |
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| Great view of the city |
Birthday celebrations
Our second day was a special one indeed! It was Chris' 30th Birthday. So he woke to a morning of fried breakfast (Japan sadly doesn't do baked beans!), balloons and presents. We headed out to the Imperial Palace Park and set up for our first Hanami (Cherry Blossom viewing party - aka picnic under the blossom). With beers and sushi we found a perfect spot under a sweeping blossom tree to sit back and celebrate.
We then headed north-west to the Kinkaku-ji temple - the golden temple - which seemed very apt for a big birthday celebration! This glistening temple is one of the most impressive structures in Kyoto. Built in 1397 as a retirement villa for Ashikaga Yoshi-mitsu it was eventually converted into a Buddhist temple on his death. The original building was burnt down some years ago as the monk in charge wanted to keep it for himself and didn't want to share its beauty, but they soon rebuilt it. The three story pavilion is covered in gold leaf, and surrounded by a lovely lake and gardens. The building glistening in the sunshine with its reflection in the water is one of those magical images that lodges itself in your memory.
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| Gold! |
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| Chris and Sarah |
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| The big 3-0 |
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| Party! |
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| Snack time! |
After wandering through the park and seeing the centre point and the shidare-zakura old weeping cherry tree, we headed to Ponto-Cho street. Running just behind the Kamo-gawa river, it is a narrow street lined with small local restaurants, and this was were we found ourselves sitting down for dinner.
Sarah, with her invaluable Japanese experience ordered a variety of local dishes for us to share - we left it to her as we had not idea. The food was delicious and sharing a variety made for a great cosy evening sitting on Takami mats round the low tables.
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| Hold to hold your chopsticks! |
We couldn't come to Japan and not experience the local fad of Karaoke! So, today of all days was the perfect opportunity to get our vocal-chords out. Sarah found a great Karaoke place just round the corner from the restaurant, with all you can drink. Karaoke in Japan isn't the daunting public experience we know in the UK, it's all about 'room hire', so you hire a room for a period of time and sing until you can't take any more!
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| Sing sing SING! |
Great walks of Kyoto
With the birthday boy feeling a little worse for wear the next day, the Julias headed out to see the Bamboo Grove in Arashiyama - west of Kyoto. Within the bus network or easily accessible by train, this was a great place for a morning exploration.
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| Bamboo |
The light bouncing between the stems is quite magical and mysterious. It is really hard to capture in photographs just how magnificent the walk is. You can't help but walk with your head facing up to the sky, feeling like Jack at the bottom of the beanstalk.
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| That's a lot of bamboo |
The Philosopher's Walk is one of the most stunning spots to see Sakura (cherry blossom) and Julia and Julia instantly fell in love. This cherry-tree lined canal was a corridor of beautiful powdery light pink blooms, looking like cotton candy.
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| Peace! |
Chris having come down with the flu - he must have drunk more than we thought the night before -dosed himself up and came to meet us at the end of the walk, where we continued southwards towards some of the temples found in this area. We ended up wandering in (sneakily at the end of the day) to Eikan-do temple, which had a beautiful garden and Taho-to pagoda up the mountainside behind.
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| The Philosopher's Walk |
Before ending up at the San-mon Gate, a large wooden gate which fronts the Nanzen-Ji temple complex. This complex has a range of Zen temples and sub-temples which warrants some time to explore up and around the main Hojo Hall, particularly to stumble across the large aqueduct which feels totally out of place!
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| ...an aqueduct? |
We said our sad goodbye's to Sarah and her friend who were heading back to Tokyo and with this also being Julia's last night in Kyoto too, we headed down to experience the night-time street scenes of Shimbashi-dori, another beautifully old house-lined street with small canal and of course more cherry blossom!
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| Lovely walks through Kyoto |
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| Hanami-koji |
We wandered down the street and made a note of the timings and costs for the shows for another evening...we felt we couldn't miss it with all the posters and lanterns advertising it!
Our evening drew to a close at a well known restaurant (Issen Yoshoku) famous for its Japanese dish, Okonomiyaki. We each ordered this pancake-like dish filled with cabbage, egg, noodles and soy and mayonnaise topping and sat down at a table with a lovely Japanese couple and an extra friend in the corner...
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| Issen Yoshoku with some friends |
A day off
Our fourth day in Kyoto was a welcome rest day. The heavens opened as we said goodbye to Julia who was heading off to explore the areas of Japan we had already come from. Chris' flu had taken hold and the jammed-packed days of walking and late nights had taken their toll. It was time for a day off! We felt a lot less guilty given it was raining all day, and enjoyed a lie in, some planning time and curling up under the duvet up with a movie.
Zen-time
Well rested, but with Chris still recovering from illness, we thought it was time for a bit of zen... so we went off to find some zen temples and exploring the north-west area of Kyoto. Here can be found a range of zen temples and gardens, the most famous of which is Ryoan-ji.
The rock garden at Ryoan-ji is one of the most famous images of Kyoto. The garden is an oblong of raked stone gravel with a collection of 15 rocks carefully placed to look like they are drifting in the sea of gravel. Designed to reveal the simplicity and harmony of the principles of zen meditation. Despite the crowds of people, once you've squeezed into a little spot to sit on the wooden ledge of the platform overlooking garden it is a mesmerizing sight and very calming on the eyes and mind.
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| Ryoan-ji |
We continued with our day of zen, at the Daitoku-ji temple complex. Like a separate little world within Kyoto, this walled complex of temples was great for a slow paced wander through the walled lanes to explore some of the temples within the complex and their zen rock-gardens. The complex was free to wander around, but to go inside the temples themselves it was around 400-600 yuen for each one.
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| Stunning rock gardens |
We started our exploration at Obai-in temple. Open only at certain times of the year, we had read that this was an interesting world of interlinked gardens and one to see if we were lucky enough to be there when it was open - and we were!
It was undergoing renovation, so the famous rock garden in the centre of the main hall of the temple wasn't open, but the walk round the corridors and through the rooms that had been filled with modern art was really interesting to see. We enjoyed pausing and taking in the views of the mossy gardens from the covered walkways and veranda of the main hall.
 |
| Calming |
Our next stop was the small but intimate Zuiho-in. The main rock garden of this temple was quite striking and Julia's favorite. It was a really attractive and appealing garden, with raked gravel revealing very distinctive, beautiful waves. The grounds were quiet, and sitting on the veranda we were approached by the lead monk from the temple who wanted to help Chris with his sitting posture - speaking only Japanese, the easiest way was to push and pull him into shape!
 |
| Zuiho-in |
The back rock garden also had been rearranged to reflect the temple's 16th century Christian daimyo (domain lord) Otomo Sorin, with rocks arranged to the shape of a crucifix.
We passed by Koto-in temple, known to be quite special in the autumn season but also for its fine bamboo grove. We popped in to see this along the moss-lined entrance path, but decided not to go in and head onto the most well known of the temples in the complex; Daisen-in.
Daisen-in has two areas of zen gardens within it. The main garden was a large oblong raked gravel garden with two piles of raked stones - like cones of salt. The second had a range of stones and trees said to represent and express various spectacles of nature. This iconic garden sadly banned photography, so we don't have any photos, but the simplicity of this garden was quite unique.
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| ...and relax. |
We had had our fill of zen by this point, and Chris wanted to see the Bamboo Grove which he had missed out on earlier in the week. So we jumped on the bus to enjoy a short wander through the grove before heading back to the apartment for a dinner of comfort food - Dominos take-away pizza! We needed an early night as tomorrow we needed to wake early for our day trip to Mt Yoshino, which you can read about on our separate post.
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| Surrounded by bamboo! |
Geisha and Kimonos
Having decided to stay an extra few days in Kyoto - we decided against going to Osaka - we had to move to another place to stay which ended up being a great little apartment close to the Kiyomizu-dera temple we had seen on day one. Located close to the Gion district, it meant it was a great opportunity for us to try to get tickets to one of the Geisha shows we had seen advertised in the week.
Julia headed down to get tickets whilst Chris checked us out of our accommodation. Getting tickets was done in a very Japanese organised fashion (or maybe they had visited Wimbledon), with queue cards and a specific waiting area depending on the type of tickets you wanted to buy! It did however mean it was very easy to get the tickets and within 10 minutes of the ticket booth opening we had a pair of seats to Mitako Odori later than afternoon.
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| The entrance to the theatre |
We spent the day doing the southern Higashiyama walk, which started right by our new accommodation. Walking down the small quaint streets we came across lots of Japanese, and even some westerners in their Kimonos, which seemed to be a popular thing to do.
 |
| Walking along Higashiyama |
There were many shops offering hair, makeup, kimonos and even photo shoots in the area, and women were tottering around up and down the small narrow lanes of Ishibei-koji in these colourful outfits. They were certainly dressed for the area and helped to bring a unique and authentic feel to the area.
 |
| Stunning hair |
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| Geisha |
We stopped for lunch in a little park area, with more kimono photoshoots going on, and made war with a very confident pigeon who came very close to eating our lunch, but Julia ran after it to the amusement of the Japanese and scared it off. We continued along the walk heading down towards Maruyama-koen which we walked through to get to Chion-in temple.
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| Kimonos a-plenty |
Called by some as 'the Vatican of pure land Buddhism' the vast Chion-in temple was sadly covered for renovation - and when we say covered - it had a whole building built over the top of it! We enjoyed walking up through the grand San-mon gate entrance and wandered round the grounds before moving onward. I'm certain this temple would have been spectacular to see inside had it not been under wraps.
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| Chion-in temple |
We headed north towards the towering steel Torii gate which straddles the route up to Heian-jingu shrine. Built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto, the shrine buildings are a colourful replica of the Imperial Court Palace. The gardens are supposed to the worth the entrance fee but we didn't have time and had to make a bee-line back to Gion for our afternoon's entertainment at Miyako Odori.
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| The huge Torii gate |
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| Geisha everywhere |
The show was quite a spectacle of colour and music. With 10 or so Geisha dressed musicians lining each side of the stage singing and performing with instruments, and at times more than 25 Geisha's dancing on the stage, it was a beautiful array of performance and story. We followed part of the story (I think) but mostly just sat back and enjoyed taking all the graceful movements and costumes in. If you are in Kyoto when the Geisha shows are on - go!
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| A sneaky photo of the performance |
We ended our evening at a small local Ramen restaurant that had built up quite a reputation on trip advisor. So much so we were in a queue for a table/spot at the bar with 7 groups ahead of us! Given it was our last chance for an authentic Japanese meal before leaving the country we decided to wait... it ended up that we waited over an hour, and whilst waiting they had to turn away any new customers as they realised they would run out of Ramen soup (at least it was popular so we knew it should be worth the wait!)
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| Yummy Ramen |
It was worth the wait! We tucked into a deliciously creamy bowl of pork ramen soup and savoured our last Japanese meal at an authentic Japanese restaurant run by two lovely ladies.
The torii walk
Our final day in Japan had arrived, we checked out and left our bags at the free luggage storage offered by our accommodation (a great additional service!) near the station and headed off to the see the last great sight of Kyoto - Fushimi-Inari-Taisha - the great Shinto Shrine walk.
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| Fushimi-Inari-Taisha |
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| 1 torii gate, 2 torri gate 3 torri gate - lost count! |
We managed to do the full 4km circular walk right up to the top of the mountain, and loved wandering up and back down the paths covered by the gates. Each torri was painted in the iconic red, with black feet and inscribed on the reverse (visible as you walk down the mountain) with Japanese and some English writing - presumably with the names of those that had donated a torri gate.
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| Unique walk in the woods |
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| Inari |
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| Time to go |
We headed back to the train station and with our backpacks in tow, we jumped on a train to Nagoya and the Central International Airport where we would be spending the night. Sadly, the trains didn't start early enough for our flight at 7am so we spent our last few hours in Japan, curled up on the benches outside the tourist centre of the arrivals area in the airport. Surprisingly, we got an good sleep. At 6am we were able to access departures to check-in and board our flight...onward to Shanghai and China!
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