This is the second part of Japan Diaries series
Click here for the first part
After short visits to Hikone and Mount Koya, I looked forward to a longer stay in Kyoto. The forecast for the four days promissed two sunny days followed by a strong typhoon. I have never seen a typhoon before so I was looking forward to watching it from the window of my comfortable hotel room while taking a day off. I also planned to visit one on the legendary Japanese cat cafes. However, the typhoon ended up being very light and I was able to spend all four days sightseeing.
Inari
My first destination was Inari. Located south-east of Kyoto, some 30 minutes on the city bus, Inari is famous for the thousand torii gates winding up to Mount Inari. Inari is also the name of my favourite kind of sushi, a rice ball in tofu skin, which, as I discovered, originated here. Of course I couldn’t resist having a quick lunch before hiking up the mountain. In a small traditional restaurant I ate the best inari ever while conteplating how my boyfriend will be jealous when I tell him about it because he loves this kind of sushi so much.
According to Trip Advisor, Inari is the most popular tourist destination in Kyoto. And it truly is beautiful. The torii gates wind up to the mountain top, allowing for at least one hour walk. Heaps of tourists visit the place, including many young Japanese women dressed in traditional yukatas or kimonos – a beautiful fashion trend that I have seen all around Kyoto. I visited the mountain during “rush hour” on summer Sunday afternoon. Yet it was easy to take many beautiful photos of the gates undisturbed by the crowds.
Half way to the top I took a well deserved break at a traditional tea house. Having already taken too many photos and sweating in 30+ Celsius, I decided to walk back down. It would have been nice to climb up the top, but I wanted to be back in town for sunset. On the way down I took even more photos and admired the gates, small shrines scattered along the path and little gates on those shrines. The orange gates are just everywhere, guarded by statues of foxes – patrons of the hill. However, I also happened to meet the first cat on my Japan trip – a sign which I took seriously and decided to visit a little cat cafe at the foot of the hill.
Cat Cafe Time
Japan is famous for cat cafes – you will find many in any major city. Although I planned this for another day, I already missed my cat so much that couldn’t resist visiting Neko Café TiME conveniently located by the entrance to the Inari hill. Their cats are adorable and the environment relaxing and sweet. If you love cats, it’s a purrfect place to stay … and hard to leave :-)
Kiyomizu-dera
How many times in life do you visit two places in one day so awesome that you can’t decide which was better? Enter Kiyomizu-dera, a temple complex overlooking Kyoto.
If you only have one sunset in Kyoto, Kyomizu-dera is the place to go. Not far from the city centre, it’s easily reachable and offers stunning views. The most famous part of the complex, a temple with wooden terrace overlooking the city, was just undergoing some reconstructions, but with sunset hour coming up it was full of tourists anyway. Even more stunning were all the orange pagodas and gates that looked like on fire in the evening golden light.
The walk back down the hill goes through historic streets, mostly filled with souvenier shops which, just like the temple complex, close down after sunset. Don’t rush and the crowds will soon disappear, leaving the streets mystical and romantic. Be patient and you might be lucky to get a private photoshoot with the Yasaka Pagoda at this favourite photographers’ location.
Arashiyama
Kyoto is a city of temples and gardens. So where to go first? In the following days, excited about the previous locations, I decided to follow the crowd and visit places popular on Trip Advisor and various online guides. With mixed success.
The famous Arashiyama Bamboo Groove and Tenryu-ji Temple were both quite a dissapointment. The Tenryu-ji garden was cute, but much smaller than I expected. The famous lake photo is really all you can see there. The neighbouring bamboo groove was crowded with Chinese tourists and not too impressive either. Perhaps in early morning or late evening the atmosphere would be different. But to me, it just seemed small and colourless.
Frustrated at the end of the Bamboo Groove I noticed an entrance to another garden where noone was heading. A quick online search told me that the Okochi Sanso garden has some beautiful views, plus tea and cake included in the ticket. And it turned out to be one of the best gardens I have seen in Kyoto. It was super quiet, almost without visitors, and much larger than most temple gardens. It’s actually a private garden that belonged to a deseased actor who was a follower of zen buddhism. Therefore, the garden has similar style to those of zen temples, with grounds covered with silky green moss. The path takes you uphill to a wooden terrace overlooking Kyoto. And back down at the teahouse, not only you get some delicious tee and cake, but also direct view into the adjacent bamboo groove, without all the tourists :)
Northern & Eastern Kyoto
The Golden Pavilon, Kinkaku-ji, in northern Kyoto is perhaps the most iconic shrine in all Japan. It’s beautiful and photographed by many. However, photographers face a challenge here because tripods are forbidden. You need to get creative to make a photo like this.
Its little brother, the Silver Temple (Ginkaku-ji) never got its silver coating as planned. It’s beautiful anyway, located in a zen garden in north-east Kyoto. The famous Philosopher’s Path connects it to another beautiful area full of temples and gardens, such as Nanzen-ji and Konchi-in. I wish I had gotten up earlier and had the time to visit them all. This area is not at all crowded and very relaxing. You can also visit an ancient but still funcional water viaduct. All these gardens are supposed to get even more beautiful in autumn when leaves turn red. A good reason to return.
The garden of the Heian Shrine offers scenic views of a lake promenade.
Another lake is covered in lotus and you can enjoy them from a teahouse while eating the traditional green sponge cake.
Culinary highlights
Food is delicious in Japan. Even the cheapest sushi from the supermarket tastes better than some “Japanese” food in Europe. Let me share an invitation to a sushi bar that I randomly ate at, and later found out that it’s very highly rated on Trip Advisor. Chojiro has an extensive sushi menu with any flavour you can imagine, and more. All fresh, made in front of you. It gets very crowded at night (people queueing all the way up to the street) but it’s easy to get in for lunch without waiting. With such great quality and prices, I never looked for another lunch place. (All the following photos are from Chojiro, except for the last one.)
Miyajima
You shouldn’t leave Japan without visiting the Miyajima Island, the location of the famous Great Torii. This was my last stop before heading to the conference in Hiroshima.
Many peple come here only for a day trip since it’s conveniently located only an hour from Hiroshima, but I wanted to stay overnight. My hotel was a bit dated but conveniently located just between the ferry and the famous gate. The island is primarilly a Japanese tourist destination, so forget about cash mashines and shops that accept European credit cards. Bring enough cash or you won’t be able to buy anything in the souvenier shops that line virtually all streets of this little village. They are fun to browse, I found some nice fans and chopsticks for a great price. What a great last day of my holiday.
