KYOTO: 3 Day Itinerary

Kyoto is a city with a huge amount of history and so many incredible sights, that sometimes it's hard to know where to start, especially if you've only got a limited amount of time. I visited Kyoto on a handful of occasions when I was staying in Osaka earlier this year, and then returned for a 4-night stay in October. I still haven't seen everything the city has to offer, but the below is what I would recommend as a 3 day itinerary to see the best of the city.

Day 1: AM

KINKAKU-JI
Spend the morning temple-hopping in Northern Kyoto. If you see just one temple in Kyoto, make sure it's the Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. This Zen temple looks amazing all year around with its majestic golden glow and reflection in the water. It looks even more impressive when the autumn leaves turn red.

Kinkaku-ji

RYOAN-JI
This is a 20 minute walk from Kinkaku-ji, and also a Zen temple. It's most famous for its rock garden. The garden is located in the head priest's former residence, and you can sit on the edge of the walkway that surrounds the building, and admire the rock garden for a few moments of contemplation. The rest of the garden is worth a walk around too, with lots of other little things to admire, including a lake, pine trees and statues.

Buddha statue in the garden of Ryoan-ji

NINNA-JI
This is a 10 minute walk from Ryoan-ji. Unlike the other two temples, this belongs to the Shingon sect of Buddhism. You can walk around the grounds and see various gates, a five storey pagoda and the main hall. The temple contains a cherry tree grove, so is particularly popular during the cherry blossom season.

Path to the main hall at Ninna-ji

Day 1: PM

ARASHIYAMA
Spend the afternoon in the district of Arashiyama. You can read more about it in my blog post here. Top sights in the area include the bamboo grove, Okochi Sanso villa, a monkey park, and Tenryu-ji, a Zen temple with beautiful landscape garden. You probably won't be able to do it all in one afternoon, so if you have a longer stay in Kyoto, I recommend spending a whole day in Arashiyama.

The garden at Tenryu-ji

Day 2: AM

KYOTO RAILWAY MUSEUM
If you're on holiday in Japan, you can see a lot of temples, shrines and castles, so sometimes it's nice to go visit something a little bit different. The Kyoto Railway Museum opened earlier this year and I had a fantastic time visiting it. I didn't know much about trains prior to visiting, but the technology of trains in Japan is actually quite fascinating, particularly the shinkansen (bullet train). 

There are lots of different trains and carriages to look at, both inside and outside the museum, ranging from the shinkansen to old steam trains. There's even a train carriage you can sit inside to enjoy one of the popular train bento boxes for lunch. There's plenty of train memorabilia, plus explanations of technical aspects, and even a huge model railway.

Make sure you go to the Sky Terrace at the top of the museum, whic acts as a viewing area for trains going in and out of Kyoto station. When I went I spotted the elusive Doctor Yellow, the shinkansen test train that monitors the conditions of the tracks and overhead wires, contributing to the safety record of Japan's bullet trains.

Cute train sign

Whole trains can be found outside the museum

The awesome miniature railway 

If you prefer art over technology, then the Kyoto National Museum is a fantastic alternative for a museum trip. The impressive permanent collection focuses on traditional Japanese art, and the museum also houses different special exhibitions.

KYOTO STATION
Kyoto main station itself is also worth checking out due to the architecture, designed by Hiroshi Hara, the same architect who designed the unique Umeda Sky building in Osaka. Take the escalators up to get a closer look at the steel matrix roof and access to an observation deck.

Roof of Kyoto Station

DAY 2: PM

FUSHIMI INARI 
Kyoto's most famous shrine is located just a few stops away from Kyoto's main station. Dedicated to the Shinto god of rice, this shrine features thousands of vermillion torii gates. You can read about it in more detail in my blog post here.

Miniature votive torii

DAY 3: AM

HONGANJI TEMPLES
These two temples, Higashi Honganji and Nishi Honganji, are located within a few blocks of each other in the centre of Kyoto. Higashi Honganji is the largest wooden structure in Kyoto and amongst the largest in the world. Nishi Honganji's buildings contain many Buddhist images and statues.

KYOTO TOWER
Located a stone's throw away from these temples, Kyoto Tower is a must-visit if you enjoy getting the best view of a city. It's the tallest structure in Kyoto and has an observation deck at 100m from ground level.

Higashi Honganji temple grounds

Kyoto tower is visible from Higashi Honganji

NISHIKI MARKET
Spend lunchtime exploring the various delicacies and oddities at this under cover market. Kyoto is famous for its pickles, and you can see all kinds of vegetables being pickled whole. You can buy various snacks to eat as you walk, from fried fish cakes to tako tamago (baby octopus filled with a quail's egg) for the more adventurous.

Pickled vegetables: daikon, cabbage etc

Fried snacks

Tako tamago

DAY 3: PM

MARUYAMA PARK + GION
Spend your final afternoon in Kyoto wondering around the scenic Maruyama Park. Also visit Yasaka shrine which is located next door to the park. It's the location for Gion Matsuri, one of Japan's best known festivals, which takes place every July with a procession of huge floats carried by participants.

Maruyama Park

As the day draws to a close, head over to the neighbouring district of Gion, the famous geisha district, whose streets are lined with beautiful old-fashioned wooden houses. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to see a geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha) on their way to an appointment: the perfect ending for your time in Kyoto.

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Kyoto Daytripping: Fushimi Inari

A while ago I posted a blog about one of the two spots in the Kyoto area that impressed me the most: Arashiyama. This post is about the second of those favourite spots, Fushimi Inari Shrine. Even if you've never heard of it, you'll probably recognise it immediately: the thousands of red torii gates are undoubtedly some of the most photogenic material you'll find in Kyoto, if not the whole of Japan. This impressive Shinto shrine is located in southern Kyoto, and is easily accessed from Kyoto JR station which is just a few stops away. Fushimi is the location of the shrine, and Inari is the god to which it is dedicated, the god of rice.

At the beginning of the shrine complex are a couple of large entrance gates, as well as the main shrine building, both of which share the distinctive vermillion hue of the famous torii gates. 

Behind the main shrine building is where the torii trail up the forested mountain begins. The lower parts of the mountain were incredibly busy with tourists when I visited. I was disappointed at how crowded it was and wondered how on earth various friends of mine, who had visited previously, managed to get great photos of just themselves against the stunning backdrop of the red torii. However, as soon as you start to work your way up the mountain, it gets much, much quieter, and at many points we were quite alone and could enjoy the impressive sights in all their glory, unmarred by crowds. I think a lot of people don't bother hiking up and just stay at the bottom for a few token photos before getting back on their coach and being driven to their next destination. 

The reason why there are so many red gates of varying sizes, is because each one has been bought as a donation to the shrine by either an individual or a business, in the hope of ensuring success and happiness. The bigger the torii, the greater the donation! The writing on the gates marks the name of the donor and the date of the donation. Some of the torii were quite old, with much of the brightness of the paint having faded and splits beginning to appear in the wood. Others were so shiny and bold in colour that they may well have been put up the day before I visited. Whether new or old, together the collection of torii certainly make an impressive sight, especially against the green backdrop of the forest. As the torii bend around a corner, they sometimes give the illusion of going on forever.

There are plenty of other things to capture the imagination along the hiking route, in addition to walking through the many torii gates. There are lots of smaller shrines at intervals along the trail. One of the recurring motifs is that of the fox, as these animals are associated with the god Inari. We even stumbled across a little bamboo grove, this one with far fewer visitors than the famous one at Arashiyama.

Roughly halfway between the starting point of the trail and the mountain summit, you reach a fantastic look out point where you can stop and catch your breath whilst enjoying a bird's eye view of Kyoto.

The whole hike to the summit and back is around 2 1/2 miles, with lots of steps and steep gradients, so it's a good idea to wear comfortable shoes and take some water with you, especially if it is a hot day. If you have forgotten your own refreshments, there are spots on the trail where you can stop for a drink or buy one to-go (and of course there are a scattering of vending machines, as is to be expected in Japan). 

On the way back down from the summit we stopped at one of the small restaurants and ate udon on a tatami mat floor, which was served by an old lady who looked like she was pushing 90 years old. She still had it going on in the kitchen though.

That was just enough fuel to get us back down to the bottom of the mountain. I think that is more or less all I can show and tell about my visit to Fushimi Inari. But you really have to go yourself to experience the magic of it.

I will write one more blog about a few attractions that I visited when in central Kyoto. Although I didn't enjoy the centre of the city as much as Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari, it still has plenty of museums (I particularly loved the new railway museum), temples, a wonderful market, and other sights to keep anyone entertained for a day or two.

Kyoto Daytripping: Arashiyama

Whilst staying in Osaka in April/May this year, I visited Kyoto on a number of occasions. One of the main reasons I chose Osaka as my base was its proximity to Kyoto and other locations in the Kansai region. Even though I enjoyed my trips to Kyoto, and certainly preferred it to Osaka (in terms of appearance and atmosphere), it still didn't quite live up to expectations, given its reputation as a must-visit destination in Japan (this is despite being awe-struck by two geisha I spotted one night in the historic geisha district of Gion - surely the quintessential experience for the tourist in Japan). Maybe it's because most of the times I visited Kyoto I had the misfortune of torrential rain so spent a lot of time in museums rather than wandering the streets or parks. Or perhaps it's because I'd reached temple/shrine saturation point by the time I visited those located in Kyoto. Either way, my two highlights of the Kyoto area are actually located outside the city itself: Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari (which I will write about in another post). Both of these places are in my opinion much more impressive than anything I saw in the city. If you ever spend a short stay in Kyoto, I would suggest making a day trip to one or both of these places rather than focussing solely on the attractions in the city itself.

Arashiyama is located in the western outskirts of Kyoto. If you take the Hankyu line to Arashiyama like I did, the first thing you do once exiting the train station is walk across Togetsukyu bridge which crosses the Katsura river. The river itself is covered in pleasure boats and is a good location to spot local wildlife.

Thickly forested riverside with pleasure boats

Cormorants enjoying a day of fishing on the Katsura river

The river as seen from a observation point near the bamboo grove

Once you cross the bridge, you are confronted by what looks like an extremely touristy area with masses of souvenir shops and tourists disembarking from coaches in their hundreds. Luckily, once you move away from this central area, the attractions tend to be less busy. The one exception to this is the bamboo grove, which unfortunately was horrendously busy, as I suppose is to be expected given it is the most famous attraction of the area. This was a real shame, as it seemed like a magical place, but you couldn't truly get a sense of this with the number of people walking through it. I was also slightly disappointed that there was only one designated path through the bamboo grove, and you could not simply wander through it freely.

Walking through the narrow path of the bamboo grove was one point at which I got extremely frustrated with people spending what felt like hours taking photos of themselves, with or without selfie sticks. It's quite a narrow path through the grove, so if there is a group doing this you not only can't pass but it takes up your entire view of the grove, which is somewhat distracting to say the least. I know I'm as guilty of taking photos as the next person, but sometimes I wish people would spend more time simply enjoying their surroundings rather than taking photos of themselves in said surroundings. I completely understand the need to record experiences for posterity, but not when it's at the detriment of enjoying the here and now. And that's the end of my selfie rant.

Bamboo Grove: vertical view

Bamboo Grove: horizontal view

After battling our way through the tourists at the bamboo grove, we went to a much more tranquil location: Okochi Sanso Villa. This is the former villa of samurai actor Denjiro Okochi, who carefully worked on the design of the gardens for 30 years. Since his death in 1962 the gardens have been open to the public. The entry fee is 1,000 JPY which includes green tea and a biscuit in the teahouse. Not only are the grounds themselves imprressive, but also afford stunning views of Kyoto as it sits on a hill. I also found the journey through the garden very interesting and different to any other Japanese garden I had visited (and I have visited quite a few now!). The paths between different locations within the grounds were frequently built up with foliage so that you were walking through 'tunnels', from which you could not see the overall plan of the garden, meaning that when you appeared in the next location it was all the more surprising and impressive. It also meant that the contrast between the 'closed' passages and the great open viewpoints of the city was even more breathtaking.

Restorative matcha and red bean biscuit in the teahouse

Chumon (middle gate)

Daijo Kaku (main building)

Jibutsudo (small temple)

After enjoying a quick lunch back down by the river, we visited Monkey Park Iwatayama. I was initially sceptical about this, partly because I expected it to be a quasi-zoo (and I'm not a huge fan of zoos), and partly because I'd stumbled across a 'monkey park' in a public park in Sakai the previous week which had been full of pretty mangy and unhappy looking monkeys. However, my preconceptions of Monkey Park Iwatayama turned out to be completely wrong, happily. The park is really just an area where the wild monkeys (Japanese macaques) that live in the mountains congregate because they are offered food. 

After buying your entry ticket to the park, a steep hike up the mountain for 20 minutes or so is rewarded by being able to get close to these monkeys in their (near-enough) natural environment. It happened to be the right time of year for baby monkeys to be born, which massively added to the cuteness factor.

Deep in thought

Family portrait

I'd prefer a hot bath

Peek-a-boo

Just having a snack

But mummy I want to play

The monkeys and the turtle dove

If you visit the monkey park, definitely stick around for feeding time. The park 'ranger' has a bucket full of food from which he throws handfuls out for the monkeys, and they get so overexcited that they almost forget that they're wild (I had a couple of monkeys nearly run right into me in their haste to get to the tasty snacks). The monkeys are apparently omnivorous, and in the park they are fed things such as soybeans, chestnuts, peanuts, bananas, and even Japanese persimmons. No wonder they like to gather here from all over the mountain. Oohing and aahing over the baby monkeys was a great way to end the day in Arashiyama, and the sun even decided to come out for the first time all day.

If I went back to Arashiyama, I would love to spend more time simply hiking in the mountains. I spotted a couple of temples in forested areas in the mountains and it would be great to hike around there and discover some of the less well-trodden paths. As has been the trend for me so far in Japan, I've enjoyed the beautiful parts of the countryside more than the urban centres.

Have you ever been to an animal park?