Day 55: Kyoto Day 1

Today's itinerary:

- Yasaka Koshindo Shrine

- Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka Street & Yasaka-no-to Pagoda (a.k.a Hokanji Temple)

- Kiyomizudera Temple

- Ishibekoji Alley

- Kodaiji Temple

- Yasaka Shrine

- Maruyama Park

- Chion-in Temple

- Hanamikoji Alley

- Tatsumibashi Bridge

- Kamogawa River

- Nishiki Market

- Eikando Temple

I found a Japan travel website that provided a plan for how to see the best of Kyoto in one day. Fortunately, I will have 3 days in Kyoto, but I thought it would be cool to use the website's recommendations for one of the days.

I took a train to Kawaramachi Station in Kyoto for 630 yen (around $7). The travel time was just over an hour and I had to transfer once at a station called Awaji. I was supposed to get a bus to my first stop (Kiyomizudera Temple) but decided to walk instead and see what else I could find. I stopped by a bakery in the train station on the way out of the station to get breakfast and ended up buying three different treats including this yummy earl grey and apple tart thing.

There was a specific order that the website had recommended seeing the sites in, but because I started walking from the station rather than getting a bus to the temple, I passed a few of the spots on the way. The first spot I found was Yasaka Koshindo Shrine, one of the most colourful temples in Kyoto and a very popular spot for photos.

Yasaka Pagoda, Sannen-zaka & Ninen-zaka

The Koshindo shrine is very close to Yasaka Pagoda (also known as Hokaiji Temple). The pagoda overlooks Gion area, which includes Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka street. Both Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka are streets lined with beautifully restored, traditional shops. The streets are full of tourists dressed in kimonos as well as lots of shops selling green tea and matcha foods. There are also carts that people can rent to travel around the streets. There is someone dressed up who will pull the cart for them and I passed several while I was walking around the area.

I absolutely loved the pagoda and streets. I am pretty sure Ninen-zaka is the street where you can see the pagoda from almost any spot and Sannen-zaka is the street near it that has a ton of shops and restaurants. It was also really cool to see people dressed up in kimonos! There were so many different patterns and colours but they were all really beautiful.

Kiyomizudera Temple

I was able to take the cool streets all the way up to the temple. I passed a green tea place along the way and bought a green tea and red bean soup dessert. It was one of the best desserts I've ever had plus they gave free green tea with it.

Kiyomizudera temple is supposedly one of the must see temples when people come to the Kansai region. The name means 'pure water temple' since it was founded in 780 on a waterfall. Unfortunately I didn't do too much research on the temple and when I arrived, I found out it has been under construction since February 2017. People were still able to access the temple but there were these big brown tarp things all over it.

There was a shrine on the other side of the temple that had cool good luck charms for different situations. For example, there were charms for traffic safety, luck with money, and finding love. There were also some areas where people could hang wooden plaques but I'm not sure if they were for writing wishes or something else.

After walking through the temple and shrine there was a path through lots of beautiful trees and plants that lead up to another smaller temple.

After exploring the temples I walked back down to the streets I had walked through before. I walked through Ninen-zaka street on the way up to the temple so I walked down through Sannen-zaka street. I bought a rice cake from one of the shops on the street and then found another alley area that I could walk through. I also bought a honey tea that was so amazing! I accidentally tried to pay for it in Korean money though... I had left some Korean change in my wallet and it looked similar to Japanese yen coins so I gave the shop lady a mixed handful of Korean and Japanese money. Fortunately she noticed. There were so many streets with really beautiful looking buildings and I could've walked around for many hours.

Ishibekoji Alley

I walked back up Ninen-zaka street to get to the next alley and took more pictures with the pagoda. I also noticed this cute bicycle place that hand-made small bicycles out of different coloured wires.

When I made it to the alley, I took a picture of it before I noticed that the alley had tons of signs in it saying don't take pictures... oops. Ishibe alley is a very quiet area in Kyoto with traditional restaurant and inns. It used to be a popular meeting area for celebrities and actors.

Found this on the street outside the alley

Kodai-ji Temple

Right outside the alley are the stairs to Kodai-ji Temple. I walked up the stairs and found a small shrine area and the entrance to the main temple. I didn't end up going inside because there was an admission fee and I still wanted to see lots of places.

Yasaka Shrine

There was a huge entrance with a big temple inside surrounded by really pretty white lanterns. To the right of it were a bunch of yummy looking food stalls. As I was walking past the food stalls a tall lady passed by with a bunch of cameras following her.

Maruyama Park

The park is very close to Yasaka Shrine so I left the shrine and walked along a little road until I found the park. Unfortunately, the trees had almost all lost their leaves and there were a lot of crows so the park looked kind of creepy and dead. There was a small food place nearby where I grabbed a hot dog and then sat down near a bridge to eat it.

There was a raven near the water and it kept trying to eat my hot dog which was a pain in the butt. However, people seemed to find it entertaining and others were coming over to try and feed it. While I was sitting and eating a man started playing a flute near the water. He had a dog and I think he was trying to get the dog to move while playing but the dog didn't seem to want to do anything. There was also a guy doing a cool sword dance on the bridge beside me.

Chion-in Temple

According to Google Maps, Chion-in temple was close to the park. Unfortunately, the path I was supposed to take to get there was blocked by a couple doing a photoshoot and the path beside it was under construction. I walked around awkwardly for a bit to see if the couple would leave before I decided to just leave the park and figure out another way to get to the temple.

There was a large area under construction when I finally made it to the entrance to the temple, but I was still able to go in. There were so many stairs to get to the temple but it was worth it. As bad as it sounds, a lot of the temples tend to look similar to each other (especially after seeing so many) and I was getting a little bored of going from temple to temple. However, when I got to the top of the stairs there was an entrance to this really beautiful courtyard below the temple. It looked so amazing and relaxing, especially with the tree colours. I wandered around the side and found what I think was a graveyard but I'm not particularly sure. It was really quiet at the side so I decided to walk back to the main courtyard. There was only one other person there and she had entered a building to speak to someone so I had the place to myself. My feet were tired so I sat on a bench in the courtyard and relaxed for awhile. I sorted through the locations I have been to and tried to find the others on my map so I could figure out which one to go to next (at this point I'd given up on the route the website provided). It started to rain lightly while I was sitting, but I was under part of the building so it was fine.

When I finally decided to move, I had been sitting for at least half an hour. It was nice to take a break at such a pretty spot and I felt better about walking more afterwards. I passed another pretty building on the way down and got to listen to a cute conversation between a mom and her son about the size of the stairs and the weather.

Hanamikoji Alley

I walked past the Yasaka shrine again on my way to the next alley. I find it so cool that I can be wandering along the streets here and be in between huge buildings one minute and then walking by a shrine or temple in the next.

Hannamikoji is an alley with similar restored buildings like Ninen-zaka except I think that most of them have been made into restaurants rather than shops. I had read online that this was a popular area to see geishas at night but they only started working around 5:30. It was only 3 by this point so I looked around the alley (and found an interesting pumpkin museum) before leaving for my next destination.

Tatsumibashi Bridge

I tried to walk between all the spots I want to see because, while the temples and alleys are beautiful and interesting, one of my favourite parts of travelling is looking around the city and the less travelled areas. I tend to find so many cool looking streets and buildings on the way to my next destination.

The alleys/streets here are narrow but cars can still drive down them. I think that may be why the majority of people (that I have seen) drive very small cars. Oh another thing! There are basically no garbage cans here so many people carry around a plastic bag to put their garbage in and then they throw it out at home.

Tatsumi bridge is in a district whose traditional architecture has been preserved and it has become a popular photo spot. I found the bridge but it was very busy so I took a few pictures and then walked across it to try and find my next spot.

Kamogawa River

Kamo river is a beautiful river that is a popular spot for tourists and residents to walk or bike along. It is near Tatsumi bridge and I needed to pass it on the way to Nishiki Market so it was a convenient and pretty stop to make. The houses on the other side of the river looked a little run down, but cool nonetheless.

I crossed the river and entered a super narrow alley to walk to the market. There were restaurants on either side of the alley but none of the food looked like something I was adventurous enough to eat. There is a lot of seafood here and I'm not a big fan of seafood, unless it's cooked salmon.

I made it out of the alley to a main street and found an Ichiran location. Ichiran is supposedly a famous ramen restaurant in Japan and Steven had recommended it so I decided to stop there for dinner.

It was an interesting dining experience. Normally the line ups are huge to get into tis restaurant. I tried to go in Dotonbori, but the wait had been too long so I gave up. I think I went at a weird time today so it wasn't too busy. I got shown upstairs and made my order on a machine like the one at the ramen restaurant in Dotonbori. Once I got my ticket I was shown to the place where people eat. There were long tables on each side of the room with dividers in between all the seats. I placed my ticket on a little tray in front of me and rang a bell.

Someone came from the other side of the wall and lifted up a tiny flap so they could reach through and get the ticket. They said something in Japanese and then bowed before closing the flap. The whole time I couldn't see their face. The flap was opened again when they brought my noodles and then closed. It was a little weird to be eating in a cubicle so close to other people, but the ramen was good! There was a paper in each cubicle for reordering and I noticed a green tea and almond cake on it. I marked it down on the paper and then placed the paper and money on the tray before ringing the bell again. Someone came and took all of it and then I got a cake a few minutes later. When I was all done, I got up, grabbed my bags, and walked out. I don't think I like the tiny space to eat, but I am glad I tried it.

I found a cool shop on the way to the market and spent some time exploring it. There was an area on the second floor that was all second hand clothes people could buy for a discounted price, but the rest of the store was new street wear. I absolutely love Korean and Japanese street wear but I really don't have room for more clothes in my suitcase so I walked out empty handed.

Nishiki Market

This market was very similar to ones I have seen in Korea. There were tons of stalls on either side of the street selling a wide variety of items. No cars are allowed to drive on the street, but people and scooters can try to squish in. It was fairly busy, but not too busy that it prevented me from taking my time to look around. I tried roasted chestnut (which didn't have much taste) and a colourful treat that looked like the cake thing I had had at the garden yesterday but ended up just being a gummy. I wish I could bring some of the rice cake candies back for my family to try but they go bad after a few days. I didn't spend too much time here because I wanted to head back to Gion district before 5:45 to see what it's like at night.

I saw four geishas in Hanamikoji alley. They walk in between the restaurants and have absolutely amazing makeup and outfits. However, there were so many people that would crowd around them and try to get pictures while they were walking which would have sucked. I didn't even notice the first geisha that I saw until she was walking right by me (I'm not sure if I was supposed to pay attention and move out of the way or what I was supposed to do). I left the alley and passed three geishas trying to get into a taxi. The street was completely blocked by people trying to take pictures of them so I stood back and waited for it to clear. It still felt super uncomfortable to be watching them and I felt bad doing it but it was also really cool to see their makeup and outfits so I just tried to stay out of the way.

Yasaka shrine at night

Eikando Temple

It was around 6 pm by now and getting pretty dark. My final stop was Eikando temple because I had read that it had a really beautiful light display at night in the fall. It took a little over half an hour to walk to the temple but the temperature outside was nice and I just listened to music.

I had to pay an admission fee at the gate to enter the garden and see the lights. People could also go up to the temples in the garden but there were so many people trying to enter them that I decided to just walk around and look at the lights. It wasn't what I expected, but it was still pretty. I thought there would be more bright lights but they had just put spotlights on the ground by the trees to give the leaves a bit of a glow. There was a pathway by two temples and then another path down to the lower part. My favourite part was a really gorgeous pond in the lower area. It was large and had a small building in the centre of it. It looked so magical with all the lights around it! There were a few bridges that passed over the water to the lower area but there was security on both sides to make sure people weren't stopping on the bridge to take pictures. There weren't really any good spots to take pictures of the bridge and the ones that were mediocre had lines of people waiting to take pictures. I walked back up to the main entrance and found another huge line of people who were waiting to take pictures from a balcony. I had seen the pond and, although it would've been nice to have a great picture, I did not want to wait in a line to take a picture of it.

I walked back to the subway station, which took around half an hour, and hopped on a train back to Osaka. I got home around 9 pm and crawled into bed to give my legs a break. I have been walking so much these past few days which feels awesome, but it also means my legs and feet are constantly tired. A few hours later I got a hilarious snapchat from one of my roommates. Today is exactly one year since BTS performed at the American Music Awards. My lovely roommates watched it with me last year and decided it would be funny to film my reaction. The snapchat I received was basically me staring at the TV, awestruck, as BTS perform. I'm pretty sure I ended up bawling my eyes out afterwards because it was such a big milestone for them, but at least I kept it together during their performance.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

P.S Another thing I've found interesting about Japan is that the people working at a cash register in stores and restaurants are very careful when giving change. They make sure they have your attention and then carefully count out your change. Some places even have a change machine where a person drops their money into this swirly hole, the machine counts it, and then spits out the change.

(November 19)

Distance walked: 21.7 km