This is the last stop of this itinerary trip around Japan ! I have been to Kyoto before but only on 1-2 days. It is not enough to see everything. And even if I went back this time, I haven’t been to the mountain temples or anything and I’d love to go again. The goal of this day in Kyoto was Nijo castle where I dreamed to go to for its Nightingale floors.
Sure there are many tourists in Kyoto but you can easily find calm and quiet places wandering around the streets, like the Benten-dô temple next to Nijo castle.
A day in Kyoto
That day, I arrived from Kanazawa around noon, so it was already quite late in the day to go on a hike to the mountain temple for example. So I went to Nijo castle instead. If you’ve read the Ottori Clan saga, you’ll know it for its Nightingale floors. This is the exact reason why I wanted to go there, I wanted to hear, with my own ears, the singing of the floors.
The sound was actually quite nice even if, of course, not like birds’ chipping you can hear from your garden. I really enjoyed the castle and its park.
The castle was holding an event in the evening to celebrate the sakura blossoms. It was a beautiful illuminations interactive event, you could get sakura themed food or curry taiyaki (which was really good!).
At the entrance there was an animation with a dragon, a bit after, you had a play of lights on sakura trees. There also was a trailer of the Snow white movie on the Honmaru, coming out of the honmaru, later on your right there were other illuminations and cherry blossom goods (gin, branch). At the very end of the tour, you could watch an interactive story with a dragon, old times characters and life. You could even get your names on the illuminations by scanning a QR code.
There were some cute stalls where I bought a few japanese-style hand fans.
The rest of the day, I wandered around Kyoto, visited Benten-dô temple, that was beautiful but apparently not well-known as it was quite empty.
I went to a cosy café-bakery and got some snack bread and crème brûlée.
Then I found a travellers’ shop, it was really cute with a lot of useful articles and journaling accessories! It was close to the famous Kyoto flower-shaped ice cream shop.
Wanting to get so Pokemon card for me and my brothers, I also went to a Pokemon card shop where you can buy card by card or decks etc.
Oh! And I went to the Pokemon centre, as Kyoto’s Pokemon centre is famous for the ceremonial Pikachu!
Then it was time to pick up my bags from the station’s coin lockers and to check in at the hostel before going to the night event in Nijo castle!
The hostel I stayed at was quite nice, they also had a sports snack bar next to the hostel’s entrance. Here you need to have your towel or you can rent it and same for 1st utility items.
What to do/ see in Kyoto ?
I will write another article on what to do in Kyoto with a longer list but here are some ideas.
What to do :
- Hike to the mountain temples
- Have a traditional craft experience
- Go to Nishiki market
- Take a day-trip to Uji or Nara
- Take the Philosopher’s path
- Take part in a tea ceremony
- Do a sake tasting at Geikkeikan Okura
- Visit with a local (there are many platforms where you can book a guide that will adapt to what you wanna do and see and give you recommandations) I recommend ……………
What to see :
- Nijo Castle
- Ginkaku-ji (less crowded than Kinkaku-ji)
- Fushimi Inari-taisha (it’s beautiful)
- Kiyomizu temple
- Tenryu-ji
- Kiyomizu-dera temple (and its famous pagoda)
- Gion (especially at night as that’s when its charms operate)
Kyoto is a quite big city with many many UNESCO registered sites and if you can I would recommend to try and visit most of them. It’s really impressive to be able to visit world gems like that.
How to get there ?
From Kanazawa :
- By bus : Kintetsu bus, 4h25, 3200-4700 yen
From Osaka :
- By JR : Thunderbird Tokaido-Sanyo line, from Osaka station to Kyoto station, 26min, 1670yen
- By HK : Hankyu-Kyoto Line, from Osaka-Umeda to Karasuma (Kyoto), 40min, ~460yen
From Fukuoka :
- By Shinkansen : Sanyo Shinkansen line, 2h40~, 16380-15400yen
- By highway bus : night bus, Willer company, 10h30~, 6500yen
From Tokyo :
- By Shinkansen : Sanyo Shinkansen line, 2h15, 13320-18640yen
- By bus : from bus terminal Tokyo Yaesu to Kyoto Station, 8h (nightbus), 4900-7400yen
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