Our next stop on our 2.5 month Japan trip was to spend a week in Kyoto. We were joined by John/JoAnna who flew to Japan for 9 days (they joined us for Kyoto for the entire time), Yoshi who came early for her annual visit to Japan visiting her family (she joined us in Kyoto for 6 days) and Jan who flew from Australia (she joined us in Kyoto for the entire time and continued on with us for the Kumano Kodo hike).
Kyoto is a beautiful city with many temples and traditional houses that were not destroyed during the war. It's also surrounded by lush hills.
Accommodation:
AirBnB - We got a three bedroom, two bath house just south of the Gion district in the Higashiyama Ward. The house was small but worked out great for us. There was one bedroom on the first floor with two beds that was shared by Jan and Yoshi as well as a bathroom on the first floor and two bedrooms upstairs that shared a bathroom. We had a small kitchenette, table and living room. We had breakfast in the house each morning and one evening we had cheese, bread and other snacks for dinner. The rest of the time we ate out.
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| Our AirBnB |
Activities:
Walking Tour of Kyoto - We did a five hour walking tour on the first full day that provided us with an intro to Kyoto. Our guide was American and a bit annoying at times but he was informative and showed us around several temples as well as hot spot areas. We walked around Pontocho Alley where there are many restaurants and bars as well as Gion (Hanamikoji Street) which is the Geisha district. We also visited several temples: a) Zuisen-ji Temple to honor the 30 women killed by one of the emperors; b) Yasui Kompira Gu Shrine that has the wishing stone that you have to climb through to grant your wish; c) Hokan-ji Temple / Yasaka Pagoda which is a five story wooden pagoda that has nice views; d) Kiyomizudera Temple which is a beautiful temple with amazing views and was one of our favorite temples. We also drank from one of the three springs to bring us good luck - each spring is for education, love and longevity - we are not sure which one we drank from so will see what luck we get; e) Kodai-ji Temple that has beautiful gardens and grounds; f) Maruyama Park which is a decent park; g) Yasaka Shrine and h) Chionin Temple which is the largest school of Buddhism and the largest gate in addition to a gigantic bell.
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| Yasaka Pagoda |
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| Kiyomizudera Temple |
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| Chionin Temple |
Food Tour - We did a three hour food tour that provided some tastings in the Nishiki Market as well as lunch at Omo Cafe which is a very cute restaurant with traditional decor. For the tastings, we tried fried tofu croquets, rice flour dumplings, mochi, donuts and ice cream, sake and a honey drink with water. For lunch we had a hamburger steak and a fish with side dishes - tasty. The Nishiki Market was good, but even more touristy (and smaller) than the market in Osaka.
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| Nishiki Market |
Sanjusangendo Temple - This temple is truly amazing - it has a very long hall that contains 1001 wood carved Buddhas. Definitely one of our favorites. No pictures allowed inside the temple.
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| Sanjusangendo Temple |
Nijo Castle - The castle has some cool wooden carvings on the buildings and the grounds are pretty with nice views of the city.
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| Nijo Castle |
Day Trip to Nara - We took the train (about an hour) to Nara to see the Todai-ji Temple (another one of our favorites) which is a very impressive temple with the largest wooden building in the world housing a giant Buddha. Before we got to the temple, we went to see the Kofuku-ji Temple but the pagoda was under repair so we could not see it. We also walked through the park to see the deer which bow to you to get fed - very cute! We stumbled upon a food festival so we had lunch there, sharing some Indian snacks.
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| Nara Deer Park |
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| Todai-ji Temple |
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| Giant Buddha in Todai-ji |
Arashiyama Tour - We did this five hour tour that took us through the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest which is a beautiful forest that unfortunately has too many tourists. Our guide took us deep into the forest so we were able to get away from the worst of the tourist impact. We stopped at the Nonomiya Shrine where you can pray for good marriage and the Tenryu-ji Temple that had beautiful grounds. We walked through the serene Okochi Sanso Gardens where we also had tea and then finally hiked up a hill to see the macaque (or snow) monkeys at the Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama. The monkeys were fun to watch.
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| Arashiyama Bamboo Forest |
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| Okochi Sanso Gardens |
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| Tenryu-ji Temple |
Kyoto Botanical Gardens - We walked around for a couple of hours. Not a lot in bloom but the conservatory had some cool plants inside.
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| Kyoto Botanical Gardens |
Day Trip to Mount Hiei and Lake Biwa - Sadly, Shawna was not feeling great after Keith generously gave her his cold. So she sat out this day while the rest of the five of us did a day trip. To get to the top of Mt Hiei we took a subway followed by a cable car (funicular) followed by a ropeway (gondola). We walked about 2 kilometers at the top of the mountain through a very pretty forest and around temples, down to the next cable car that took us down to Lake Biwa. It is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. We then took a train from the bottom of the cablecar into Otsu, the city at the south of the lake. After a fast food lunch, we tried to rent bikes but they were expensive for the hour we had left. Instead, we walked a bit along the lakefront, stopped by a post office to get stamps for Jan to send a postcard to Rex, then took the train back to our house. If/when we go back to Biwa, it would be good to do a day cycling and also take the steamer boat on the lake.
Fushimi Inari - We walked up to the top of this mountain that has thousands of Torii gates and shrines that dot the path along the way. There were a lot of people there but it started to get quieter as you get closer to the top. In all, it took us about 1.5 hours to do it roundtrip. It's a worthwhile place to see and we would love to return to do it at night.
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| Fushimi Inari |
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| Kinkaku-ji |
Masa Sumibi Yakitori - Located near our AirBnB, we had dinner here our first night, sharing some fried chicken, chicken skewers and stir fried noodles. Pretty good.
Kokoro Izakaya - We stopped her for lunch after our walking tour where our guide joined us. We had some fried chicken, sashimi, and stir fried noodles.
Tohka Saikan - We had dinner at this Chinese restaurant that had an outside deck with views of the river. We shared some gyoza, stir fried pork and beef and spring rolls. All very good.
Kyo Apollo - We had dinner at this cute place where we sat in a private room on tatami mats but thankfully with stools that had a back to them. We shared sashimi, gyoza, beef rice bowl and the best of which was the steak sandwich.
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| Kyo Apollo |
Mizuchaya - Located near our AirBnB, we had dinner here, sharing some gyoza and okonomiyaki (savory pancakes). The gyoza was quite tasty. The woman who owned the place had run it for over 50 years!
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| Mizuchaya |
Kamo Tomo - We stopped at this small bar near our AirBnB for a few beers and gin and tonics. The owner was from Mexico and had married a Japanese women. He said he owned the bar to support his hobby of being a whiskey collector. Cute place and good drinks.
KFC - Don't judge us! We had lunch at the one near Nishiki Market. We had learned from one of our guides that Japenese people go to KFC for Christmas so we had to check out if it was good. We got a mixed chicken sampler - original recipe and garlic/soy. Both were good but not as good as in the US.
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| KFC |
Benkei Udon Higashiyama - We had udon here for dinner - also near our AirBnB. Sat on tatami mats - food was pretty good.
Cheese Shop and Wine Cafe - We stopped here after dinner as Shawna had seen that they had good cheesecake. There was only one piece left and the owner was not sure if it was still good so she gave it to us for free. We took it home and each got a bite - very good!
Sukiya - Located on Lake Biwa, we stopped at this rice bowl chain for lunch. The curry bowls were great.
Sherry - Located near our AirBnB, John, JoAnna, Keith and Shawna had dinner here. We sat upstairs in our own room on the floor but there was a whole under the table where your legs could dangle down so much more comfortable. We shared some sashimi, gyoza, fried chicken, pork cutlet and potato. Everything was delicious - especially the sashimi and gyoza.
Kyo-Ryori Manshige - Yoshi knows the owner at this restaurant so she arranged for us to have dinner here. Kaz (Yoshi, Keith and Jan know him from Kandersteg) and his wife, Hiroko, joined us as well. We had a nine course Kaiseki meal, each course presented beautifully in the cutest dishes. We had whole fish again but this time Shawna opted to just eat the fish meat rather than the whole thing. Our favorite dishes were the soup with mushrooms and the sea bream that was sautéed in a miso sauce and the melon served at the end was very sweet and juicy.
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| Kaz, Hiroko, Keith, Yoshi, John, Shawna, JoAnna and Jan |
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| Kyo Ryori Manshige |
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