Kyoto

Nijo Castle garden

Nijo castle

We had a perfect hotel location in Kyoto. In the afternoon, after we arrived to the train station with Shinkansen, we went to drop off our bags in the hotel lobby and took a stroll around the neighborhood. It took 10-15 minutes of walking until we arrived to the Nijo Castle - a UNESCO world heritage site and a former imperial villa. The entrance was 1600 yen for two people and we had an hour before closing time. It was our first time seeing Japanese castle palace architecture from up close, including beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings.

1000 Torii gates

Fushimi Inari Shrine and Tofuku-ji Temple

Probably the most iconic site to see in Kyoto, a trip to the "orange gates" can take anywhere between one to five hours, if you want to see the surroundings as well. The JR Nara line took us literally right in front of the first torii gate, where we ate our snacks and walked towards the main gate of Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Romon gate. It was getting visibly busier, especially at the beginning of the 1000 torii gates. However, the hike to the top is about 4 km long, so the crowds slowly dissipate, and there were even sections of us being alone. Along the way, we stopped by a viewpoint and ones or twice turned sideways from the main path to check out the scenery, sub-shrines and fox statues.

We took a less crowded and very steep path from the mountaintop towards the city, and stumbled upon a beautiful wooden temple, the Tofuku-ji temple. One of the locals stopped us and recommended to look up when visiting the main building, as it features a painting of a dragon.

Nishiki Market

Everyone who travels to Japan seems to visit the Nishiki Market, a street food market, so we too had to check it out. I imagined it to be just one street but I was wrong. It consisted of many parallel roads and, as it turned out, many more perpendicular ones, all of which intersected at few points and spread even more. We only walked a part of it and Erik ordered fish balls (he liked the first two but then the taste and texture became too much). There were many street food vendors as well as restaurants, and few shops with clothing and souvenirs on the outskirts.

Arashiyama bamboo forest

We took a bus towards the west part of Kyoto to walk through a bamboo forest. We had a little space just for ourselves at the entrance to admire the bamboo trees, but later it became flooded with tourists. Some of the trees were damaged by people's signatures and drawings. It only took us about 15 minutes to walk from the entrance towards exit. Outside of the forest, there were MANY small shops and a little food market, but everything was very overpriced. Walking a short distance away from the area made a big difference in food prices. We walked towards a bus stop to take us to our next site.

Otagi Nenbutsu-ji

Otagi Nenbutsu-ji (tiny budha statues)

At the foot of Mount Atago, which is the tallest mountain in Kyoto (as told by a german lady that was giving us directions), lies Otagi Nenbutsu-ji temple. We took a bus there, bought tickets and went in. The temple and its surroundings were quite small, yet the word that came to my mind a lot was wholesome. What looked like stones around the temple were hundreds of tiny budha statues, each unique and simply cute. The whole experience was just wholesome.

Kioyomizudera

Another popular tourist attraction is the traditional street leading towards one of the most celebrated temples of Kyoto, and a three storied pagoda behind it. The place is very picturesque hence we saw many tourists putting on the traditional kimono and taking photos. We were just enjoying the views.

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Sanjusangendo Temple - 1001 wooden statues

Probably the most other-worldly experience, and Erik's favorite. The admission for one person is 600 yen. Unfortunately, it wasn't allowed to take photos inside, we also had to take off our shoes and walk the long temple hall only in socks. But the sights were incredible. The hall hosts 1000 human sized wooden statues of Kannon incarnations (the goddes of mercy). In the middle of the hall lies a much bigger statue of Kannon, and in front of the assembly stand guardian deities.

Matcha tea tasting at Mitsui House

The Mitsui family is one of the most powerful and prominent families in Japan. We had a free attraction at Trip.com to choose, one of which was a tea ceremony at the Mitsui House. The tour of the house can be purchased on site or online. The ceremony happened in a tatami room with a view to the garden, however the room at which we were staying was a part of the tour, so few people came in to check it out. We sat down on some pads and two ladies brought us green tea with complementary sweet candy. It was very peaceful and tasty, however I started feeling a bit nervous when tourists entered the room.