Japan Part 3 - Kyoto
Finally, months after my trip ended, I’m writing up Part 3 of my adventures – Kyoto! Kyoto was the part of the trip I was most excited about. I’m a history nerd and the historical significance of the city in Japan is tremendous, and it was the capital for much of Japan’s history. Also, it wasn’t destroyed in WWII so the buildings and temples are mostly originals. Kyoto was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and I wished when I was there that I could have added on just a couple more days. I’ll definitely go back next time I visit Japan. Here are the great, the mixed, and the overrated from Kyoto.
The Great
Kyoto Sake Class
Hands down the top thing I did in Kyoto was my sake tasting class. Kyoto is traditionally one of the major sake-producing areas in Japan, and is currently second only to Kobe. The sake section of the city, for lack of a better word, is the Fushimi district. The tour consisted of two parts. The first part took us through a sake brewery and museum, and the fantastic tour guide told us about the history of sake in Kyoto specifically, how sake is made, and then we tried a few sakes made by the brewery. After that we went to a tasting room, where we tasted another 7 sakes. Each one we tried twice, once by itself and then a second time paired with a specific snack. I learned a lot, had delicious sake, and just had a total blast. Seriously one of my top experiences.
The Gardens
Kyoto is a city of incredible and beautiful gardens. The temples in Kyoto are not just singular buildings, like a cathedral, but a complex of buildings surrounded by gardens. And there are also the gardens within the Imperial Palace and a couple private gardens as well. It was spring and even if it was post-cherry blossoms, they were incredibly beautiful. My favorites were the grounds at Tenryu-ji, the “Temple of the Heavenly Dragon,” the grounds at the Silver Pavilion Temple complex, and the Okochi Sanso garden, which had the added benefit of being fairly empty so you could really embrace nature. I’d love to go back and see them with the fall foliage one day.
The JR Pass
This isn’t a Kyoto-specific thing but I couldn’t end my recap of Japan without singing its praises. The JR pass allows you unlimited rides on all JR rails, including the shinkansen, for a specific number of days. This meant that, aside from some of the Tokyo and Kyoto metro lines (the cities don’t have a singular metro system, but a bunch of metro lines run by different companies) all I had to do was scan the pass to reserve my tickets and to get into the train stations. All the trains I took between cities, a day trip I took, and a good chunk of my trips on the Tokyo metro were all covered by the pass. The pass is a bit pricey up front, but it is so worth it and will save you time, energy, and money.
The Mixed
Temple Overload
Almost all the temples I saw in Kyoto were beautiful and completely worth checking out. However. There are a LOT of temple in Kyoto and I definitely hit oversaturation by the time I left the city. On two different days I hit three temples each, and I probably saw 1-2 on most of the other days I was there (Ok, according to my notes I visited 9 temples/shrines in 6 days) It was just a little too much temples, even for me. That said, all the temples I saw were really cool, so I don’t regret any of them. I would recommend against trying to hit all the famous temples in Kyoto in one trip though, as it really does cause oversaturation.
The Overrated
Gion
Gion, the traditional geisha district in Kyoto, is one of the top things people know about the city. It’s also really whatever. Some parts are extremely pretty to walk around, particularly the northern bit, called Shimbashi. Gion proper, however, was just empty and full of closed buildings and tourists walking around surreptitiously taking pictures (technically they aren’t allowed). I think I’d been expecting a fancier version of the Golden Gai, and instead it was just kind of boring. But – just across the river is Ponto-cho, which is full of little bars and izakayas and everything. So skip Gion but definitely check out Ponto-cho.
Conclusion
Kyoto is a fantastic city to visit. It’s lovely and there is a lot to see. I will definitely visit again on my next trip to Japan, whenever that ends up being.
And in conclusion of the trip as a whole – it was fantastic. I genuinely could have stayed in both Kanazawa and Kyoto for a bit longer, and I could have easily stayed in the country for another four to seven days before I was ready to come home. Japan is an amazing country and worth visiting, at least once. It’s got a bit of everything and super easy to get around, even if you don’t speak any Japanese. So if you are interested, don’t be intimidated and just go for it! It’ll be worth your while.
