Kyoto

We started our time in Kyoto by going up Kyoto Tower for a panoramic view of the city and surrounding mountains. The binoculars at the top were free, so we took advantage by locating each of the temples we planned to visit during our stay and watched the crowds come and go from afar. 

One of the temples that we were unable to spot was Kinkaku-ji Temple, which was the next stop on our sightseeing itinerary.  When we got there, we found out that it was very crowded at the temple and Will and I were swept along the one way system in amongst the other tourists. We still managed to get some great views of the Golden Pagoda though. 

After a stop for lunch, we visited two more temples, one of which had a cool mini bamboo forest that we lingered in. It was set into a mountain and required a lot of steps to reach it, but was totally worth the effort!

Our evening activity was a walking tour through Gion, a district known for having lots of Geisha houses. We managed to meet up with Elly just before the tour and grabbed a convenience store dinner. As the tour started, there was no sign of the others in our group and the other couple who were also booked on tour were a no-show. This resulting in Will, Elly and I having a very intimate, private walking tour. Because it was such a small group, we peppered our guide with questions and now have all the information required to request a Geisha performance at a restaurant or tea house, too bad we will never have that kind of money! 

Fallon, Ruby and Sam managed to find us about half way through the tour and we ended at Gion corner, where the theatre has traditional performances every night. That immediately went on the itinerary wish list for one of our evenings, because it turns out there is in fact a way to see a Geisha performance without being a rich business man! 

Thursday morning was an early start, as we wanted to go to the Fushimi Inari Taisha before it got too busy. This temple is very popular with tourists, because the mountain steps to reach it are lined with tori gates, making it very photographable! We passed quite a few people posing with the gates as we huffed and puffed our way up.

Our whole group eventually made it to the temple and we enjoyed the views out across Kyoto, before we split up and only half of us continued to the top (Will, Sam and I). The path around the summit was enclosed by trees and even more Tori gates. As we wandered along, I swore that we were going in circles, passing small shrines that I was sure we'd seen already! We finally found our way out and were greeted by throngs of people. It must have become really busy whilst we were on the quiet summit path, which added to the odd feeling of having being stuck in some weird loop on the mountain. We made our way back towards the others with Sam managing to trip only 3 times in the whole walk (a good record by his standard!). 

After all that walking a good lunch was in order, so we headed to Nishiki, the local food market.  Ruby found us a small ramen shop just off a side street from the market and we ate at the counter, enjoying watching the chefs prepare the food as we waited. Then it was time to explore the market! There were so many smells and colours from all the food stalls. Lots of the snacks looked tempting, but after a filling lunch, we settled on just sharing some mini donuts as a dessert (not very Japanese, we know!). 

As the others wanted longer to browse and shop, Will and I peeled off from the group and went to visit Nijō Castle. Another castle that Will was forced to visit- this one was really cool though, I swear! It had one of the famous nightingale floors and several rooms had been staged to show how they would have been used during the Shogun occupation of the building. 

We ended the day by meeting back up with the group at the Kiyomizu-dera temple for an amazing view of Kyoto below us with the sun setting on the mountains beyond. 

On Friday we wanted to visit the local and very popular Arashiyama bamboo forest. To get there, we decided to take the scenic route by taking the train and then boarding a leisurely boat through the mountains. It took a couple of hours on the river and we got to know our boatmen, as they chatted about their jobs and pointed out local animals or cool shaped rocked. 

When we arrived at Arashiyama town, there were lots of other tourists, both international and Japanese, who were eating ice cream by the river or renting small rowing boats to take out for a paddle. We explored the town by foot, visiting a temple and stopping at a local restaurant for lunch. 

Then it was time to head to the bamboo forest. From everything we'd heard from other tourists and our previous tour guides, we expected the path through the forest to be absolutely rammed, with no room to breathe, but we were surprised. There were lots of tourists there, but no more than at any of the popular temples we'd visited on our other days in Kyoto. We even managed to get a couple of photos with minimal background people! 

On the way back to Kyoto, the group split up again with Will and I heading to Ginkakuji Temple. This houses the Silver Pavilion, but unlike the Golden Pavilion that we visited earlier in the week, it was crowd-free and quiet. The zen garden was very relaxing and I loved all the running water and autumnal trees. The pictures don't do it justice and don't accurately capture the peaceful beauty of the temple - it was very picturesque and we both really enjoyed our visit there!

We ended the day by meeting up with Ruby and Elly at Gion Corner, where we watched a theatre performance, which included short segments of lots of different styles of Japanese performance art, several of which are on the UNESCO list. This was a really good way to get to see various art forms that we probably wouldn't want to sit through for a whole performance, but wanted to just get a taster of. I enjoyed the Maiko Geisha dance the best, with two trainee Geisha performing a duet for us. Will said he didn't have a favourite, finding some of the styles very different from the Western stage performances that we're used to, so I'm not sure he enjoyed it quite as much as the rest of us!