After a packed week in Tokyo, we arrived in Kyoto a bit stumped about what to do. We’d stayed in 4 different hotels over the course of a week and now had 7 nights in the same hotel. I had planned out the days but quickly realised all the sights I’d planned to see weren’t going to take as long as I thought they would. I’d learnt from the Tokyo week that I enjoyed fast paced travelling and liked having things to do all the time. Because of this, we ended up taking quite a few day trips from Kyoto.
Must Do / Day Trips
Arashiyama – the bamboo rainforest is at the top of most tourists ‘must see’ lists, and for good reason. It’s such a relaxing place to walk through. Arashiyama gets busy very quickly, so if you want the photos without people in them, make sure to get there early! I didn’t realise there was a hike at the end of the forest, and while I almost died trying to walk up the hill, it was worth the view at the top. I’d been most excited to see fall colours and this hike definitely delivered. I’d allocated the entire day just to see this, but we we’re done within a couple of hours.
Fushimi-Inari Shrine – similarly to Arashiyama, this is another big tourist spot, and even arriving at 7am, it was already busy. Not only is it much cooler in the morning, but there’s way less people. Also, if you want good photos without people, just keep walking – the gates look the same the whole way up, but there’s a lot less people the higher you go. The shrine is made up of over 1000 vermillion Torri gates which snake up to the top of Inari Mountain. We did the hike all the way to the summit but the best view was about half way up and while it was a good hike, you don’t really need to go all the way to the top unless you’re not looking for a view. But we did find the best light and took the nicest photos up here.
Naoshima Art Island – this was by far one of my favourite days in Japan. It was an 8hr round trip and we only spent a few hours on the actual island, but it was definitely worth it. The only way to access the island is via ferry, and it seems to be a lot less know by tourists, so it was less crowded than I thought it’d be. I’d seen photos of the Yellow Pumpkin, a sculpture by Yayoi Kusama and that was the whole reason why I wanted to visit the island. The best way to get around the island is by bicycle so we rented electric bikes for 1000 yen for the day.
We paid 2060 yen each to go into the first art museum we came across, the Chichu Art Museum and I felt ripped off. I’d read so many reviews claiming it was a ‘must see’, but honestly it was not worth the hype (especially for the price). It’s a cool idea – there’s no artificial lighting and the architecture is built so that the natural light is used to showcase the artwork – but it just didn’t live up to the hype. This put us off going into any of the other museums so we just rode our bikes around for the rest of the day. Did we travel 4hrs just to see a pumpkin? Yes. Would we do it again? Absolutely!
Nara Deer Park – there is no mistaking whether you’re in the right place when you get off the train at Nara station. The entire town, including the station is like a massive deer shrine. It’s a bit of a trek before you reach the park (about 2km), but everyone is going to the same place so we just followed the crowd. When you get into the park the deer are everywhere. Street vendors sell crackers to feed the deer for 150 Yen but all the crackers are gone within a few minutes. I’m not an animal person but these deer were the cutest things ever and will bow for treats. After taking 10 million photos with the deer, we walked through the rest of the park to admire the pretty autumn leaves. Nara was probable one of (if not the) most touristy places we visited (however it was a Sunday), but everyone was still very polite and we didn’t feel over crowded at all.
Kobe – we went here on our last day in Kyoto and it was way better than expected. By now we were learning that the best days happen when they’re unplanned. Right near Shin-Kobe station is the beginning of the Kobe Ropeway, which will take you to the top of a mountain, home of the Herb Gardens. The tickets were 1500 Yen each and included a round trip on the Ropeway as well as entry to the Herb Gardens. I love a good view and the Ropeway gives you panoramic views of Kobe and Osaka. There was also amazing Autumn foliage all the way up the mountain. After admiring all the pretty flowers, we stopped for lunch at this fancy cafe called ‘The Veranda’ where we had cute little high tea style sandwiches. We continued walking down the mountain and there is a ‘mid station’ where you can get back on the Ropeway to take you down to the bottom.
Downtown Kyoto – we only really spent one day exploring the city of Kyoto and Downtown Kyoto was a short walk from our accommodation. I’d read reviews about % Arabica and really wanted to visit the little coffee shop where I was treated to the best latte of my life. We also discovered our favourite food of the trip here, melonpan, which is a sweet dough bun with an outer layer of thin cookie dough.
Accommodation
We stayed at Hotel Il Verde Kyoto and it was our favourite hotel of the trip. We’d cancelled and rebooked a few different hotels for this week and after staying so far away from the station at Tokyo, decided we wanted something very close to Kyoto Station to save some travel time. We were upgraded to a larger room, which was awesome, and the hotel was incredibly clean with great facilities. I’d definitely recommend this as a central base for exploring Kyoto.
Food
On our first day exploring around the hotel, we wandered into Kyoto Tower and found their basement level food court. There were plenty of options both Western and Japanese, but we ended up having Mexican, which was so good that we went back a couple more times during our stay. After the spicy meal, we were craving ice-cream and found a place called Rolly’s Ice-cream, which ended up being an experience in itself as the staff made the ice cream from liquid and then rolled it up.
We really enjoyed this whole week and everything we did, but I felt like we had allowed too much time for Kyoto and Osaka and would’ve preferred to shorten these to 10 days and spent a few extra days in Tokyo. However, it was nice to feel less rushed and find things to do that were unplanned.
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