Kyoto City Break

Three days of temples and gardens

Recommended days	3
Budget	££
Difficulty	Medium

Our Kyoto city break was for three nights but, depending on your interests, we could have done it in 2 or spent a week there. If you don’t like temples and gardens then 2 days is plenty. If you do then there are plenty here plus numerous day trips available.

Why Kyoto

Kyoto is the old imperial capital of Japan and has pretty much stayed in a time warp. It has a plethora of temples and also most of the geisha schools. It is also far less built up than Tokyo with few high rise buildings.

Japanese Train Travel

From Tokyo we then got the (very expensive – £192 for 2 singles!) train to Kyoto and watched the paddy fields and little houses zoom past in a blur. The bullet trains are justifiably famous – quiet, ultra efficient, lots of space but damned expensive!

The trains here, along with much else, are the antithesis of European standards – you are not allowed to speak on your mobile on the train, eating is frowned upon as is any sort of music.

Everyone queues quietly and in neat, rigid lines. No litter, no graffiti. Maybe we should give up some of our obsessive individual freedoms in exchange for a far better collective existence! 

Anyway, after reversing 4 decades of EU social engineering the conductor announced that we were arriving at Kyoto soon. Knowing what they are like about punctuality I woke Deb, chucked our stuff into the bags and got to the doors just in time.

Our Accomodation

We stopped for a coffee to wake up a bit and then got the subway to the Crowne Plaza hotel and checked in. The hotel was great, bamboo style rooms with plenty of space and a refreshingly minimalist design. We unpacked for our 4 night stay here and then I went out to have a look at Nijo Castle, next to the hotel. After a 40 minutes circuit of the bloody place I discovered that the only bit that was lit up was the section opposite the hotel! 

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By the time we had sorted our stuff out, done some washing, written up notes etc etc it was close to midnight, so much for an early night, again! The bed was blissfully comfy though although I still managed to wake before 7.

Kiyomizu Dera Temple

I left Deb sleeping and went out for a walk to Kiyomizu Dera Temple, about 3 miles away. It was pleasantly cool at that time in the morning and when I got there the place was almost deserted.

It was quite a climb up the hill but the views were worthwhile, although it was a shame the main building was covered in scaffolding whilst they restored it. The buildings were all of wood and have been burned, rebuilt and restored many times down the centuries.

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By about 8.30 the place was beginning to fill up, lots of parties of schoolkids as well as damned tourists 😛 I was interviewed by a group of kids practising their English while the teacher looked on so had to be on my best behaviour. I walked out of the complex and down the hill that had been deserted when I walked up and was now a mass of stalls, shops and people. 

Nanzen Ji Temple

Looking at the map I headed to Nanzen Ji Temple, about 30 minutes away but Google’s navigation was superb, taking me down side roads and pathways but there was no ambiguity at all.

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Kodiaji Zen Temple

Except when I decided to divert to KodiaJi Zen Temple. This was a small and almost deserted temple complex with beautiful and traditional zen gardens – raked gravel, arched bridge over water, covered bridges and sculpted trees etc

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From here I continued on to the other temple which was a lot busier and, although bigger, just seemed less of a temple and more of an attraction. It was now getting hot so I headed back to the hotel, taking the subway part of the way and arrived around 11.30. Productive morning! After a quick wash and change we then both headed to the centre on the hotel shuttle ready for our afternoon private tour.

Private Walking Tour

Our guide was Julian, a teacher who was Japanese but bought up in the US so he had interesting observations on Japanese society. I’d forgotten it was a walking tour and my feet were aching before we even started!

Tofukuji Temple

We headed through a residential district and then into the Tofukuji Temple complex, made up of about 20 buildings. We learned, and promptly forgot, a potted history of Shintoism, Bhuddism, the Shogunate and Imperial eras and probably other things too.

The buildings and gardens were beautiful, again all wooden and reconstructed at various times. I was trying to hide in the shade as much as possible as it was baking hot by now.

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Fushima Inari Temple

We the walked through another residential area to the Fushima Inari temple – this is the famous one with all the torii’s and as such it was packed. It really was a production line place and best scooted through as soon as possible, ideally returning around 6.30AM.

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Will have to check routes and see if we can do that one day. Deb will love me for it! 😛 Our final stop was a trip through the Gion district where the geishas (actually geiko and maiko for geisha and apprentice) live and work. this was a very quaint area with a lot of historic buildings and also a lot of tourists. There was the option of a geisha show but at £30 each I wasn’t overkeen on it and I was knackered anyway.

We left the guide and headed back, stopping for a dinner that was actually recognisable as food! We got back to the hotel around 8, another long day. I don’t think I have ever had a more welcome soak in the bath!

Himeji Castle

We woke up on the Wednesday to rain, which was joyous as we had an all day trip to Himeji Castle booked. We took the shuttle to the station and met the tour, just us and a Canadian family. We boarded the excellent Shinkansen train and soon arrived in Himeji.

It was a short walk in heavy rain to the castle but the group walked so damned slowly that I was soaked before reaching the castle. The rain was so heavy there wasn’t much point in touring the grounds so we went into the keep.

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This had been renovated recently and the interior was all of wood. I don’t know whether their siegecraft was just crap but the castles here all seem pretty pathetic. The keep had 5 levels and was a purely defensive structure, the lord living elsewhere in the castle. The stairs were very steep and the interior bare of decoration. You had to remove your shoes before going in and there was a very organised route.

The views from the top were impressive, it certainly did command the area. We left the castle and the guide suggested a walk in the gardens to kill time before lunch but I couldn’t be arsed. We took the train back to Kyoto on our own – the other part of the tour was a visit to the suspension bridge but when we passed it the weather was so poor you couldn’t even see the second support column!

We had a lunch which sounded nice – salmon, potato and green beans but the whole lot was deep fried in butter so the salmon was massively overcooked and it was all just so damned greasy! Back at the hotel we just had a chilled time and I even went to the gym! I had another soak in the bath before bed and slept like a log again. Although I’m not sure how logs actually sleep.

Kinkaku Ji Temple

Thursday morning was glorious sunshine. We decided to head to Kinkaku ji – the Golden Temple – as I had read it got very busy later in the day. It was an hours walk so we took the bus instead and arrived 15 minutes before it opened. The queue was already the entire length of the access road and onto the street!

We eventually got inside and it was an iconic picture in front of us – a sculpted tree on an island in an artificial lake with the golden temple catching the light of the sun and the hills behind. Took a few photos and that was basically it, we followed the rest of the circuit but we were in there for less time than we were queueing.

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Arashiyama Monkey Park

We then headed out and walked for our next bus to the Arashiyama Monkey Park. This involved a walk and a couple of buses, I have no idea how people managed before Google, it just opens up so many possibilities!

This area was quite touristy and we bought a few gifts before the long walk up the hill in the sunshine. It was well organised with plenty of seating on the way up and even a couple of air conditioned rest rooms! At the top we could see all across the city and also watch the snow monkeys, who were totally used to people and just did their own thing.

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Tenryu Ji

Another item off our list and we then headed for another temple nearby (Tenryu ji) which had beautiful gardens, very well maintained (I have never seen anyone sweep moss clean before!) and with lots of shade.

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Arashiyama Bamboo

The final stop was the Arashiyama bamboo forest but this was massively busy – although impressive too. We then had a long walk to the subway and then a longer walk after to our hotel. Another busy day!

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Nijo Castle

The next morning I took advantage of a late check out in the hotel to go and visit Nijo Castle when it was actually open. It seemed far more of a fortified barracks than a castle in the western sense but it was beautifully decorated and had lovely gardens.

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It was then a case of get back on train for another stay in Tokyo. We’d already sent our luggage on ahead so we didn’t have to worry about getting that through the stations or on the train and it was a relaxing trip.

A Kyoto city break was a fabulous experience. Probably the most photogenic place I have ever visited for its abundance of temples and gardens and so much colour everywhere! An absolutely fascinating place and, like the rest of Japan, very safe and clean.

2018