For the second stop in our trip across Japan, we spent two days and one night in Kyoto. Before we dive in I must say that we definitely didn’t spend enough time here. We also chose a hotel outside of the city center which also limited our time in the city.
Day 1: Kyoto Imperial Palace
After arriving on our Shinkansen from Tokyo, we stored our luggage in the lockers at Kyoto Station and headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace and after a short subway ride we found ourselves near the entrance to the grounds.
We had to walk quite a ways before we found the entrance to the palace grounds. The palace grounds are separated from the remainder of the property by a large wall with gates.
The first part of our grounds tour wasn’t very impressive. The palace had many large parade grounds type spaces which consisted of empty gravel areas. Fortunately there was more to see as we made our way through.
As we walked through the grounds we came upon the gorgeous pond garden which is located on the east side of the grounds. This space was very serene and a light rain started to fall while we were walking through the area.
As we finished our tour the rain was starting to pick up. We were in need of some food and stumbled upon a great little restaurant a few blocks from the palace. The restaurant was so tucked away that it felt like we were eating in someone’s living room. The food was fantastic and it was a great way to pass the time before taking the train back to the city.
After retrieving our luggage from the train station it was time to head out to our onsen for the evening. While the onsen was reachable by train, it would have involved two transfers and taken over 45 minutes. We chose instead to take an uber and the views on the way there were great as we got further from the city center.
Day 2: Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari-taisha
The next morning we were up bright and early to head over to the bamboo forests of Arashiyama. We saw reports that it was possible to see monkeys out and about so we wanted to arrive before the place was swarming with tourists.
Our onsen was located across the Katsura River from Arashiyama so we made the short walk over around 8:00a local time. The rain from the previous day was gone and we had bright blue skies at our disposal.
Shortly after crossing the river and turning off of the main road, we came upon the entrance to the bamboo forest. There were some houses and buildings near the entrance but as we continued we found ourselves surrounded by tall bamboo.
After exploring the bamboo groves we started walking back towards the hotel. We took the senic route through the park and along the river back towards our onsen in the hope that we would see some monkeys. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side and there were no monkeys to speak of.
We had breakfast at the hotel and then called an Uber to take us back to Kyoto Station. Like the day before, we stored our luggage in the station lockers and headed back out to explore the city.
We grabbed a quick lunch near the station and then headed out to our first stop of the afternoon, the Yasaka Shrine.
After walking around the Yasaka Shrine we slowly made our way down towards the Fushimi Inari-taisha. The walk was long but we stuck to back streets and visited shops and restaurants as we made our way down.
The crowds at Fushimi Inari-taisha were large and there were masses of people trying to take photos with the shrine’s hundreds of orange arches. The girls wanted to hike up the path and afterwards we grabbed a quick and refreshing snack at one of the local cafe’s nearby.
As we approached the evening, we headed back to Kyoto Station to grab the Shinkansen down to Osaka for the final leg of our trip.
Summary
Obviously our time in Kyoto was extremely short. I don’t actually feel like we were able to see the city properly and I would recommend spending at least a couple of nights here. If we had it to do over again, I would have given up a day in Tokyo in exchange for an extra day in Kyoto. We will absolutely return to Kyoto on a future trip to Japan as we still have plenty of the city to explore.