Kyoto was our break from the chaos of Tokyo and Osaka. Instead of the flashing lights and busyness, Kyoto was more laid back. We stayed in a traditional Japanese Ryokan, Gion Shinmonso which you can read about here, and spent more time going to temples/shrines and didn’t spend as much travelling across the city from one attraction to the next.
Don’t get me wrong, there is tons to do in Kyoto, but it’s smaller and operates at a slower place. Japan is very clean in general, but Kyoto was even cleaner than Tokyo and Osaka. And although the temples were extremely packed with tourists and busy, while walking around the city I couldn’t help but notice that Kyoto is quieter and there are less people wandering the streets. It was a nice break and added a perfect balance to the trip.
We took the Shinkansen (Bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka first, and then took the same train for a quick 20-minute ride to Kyoto. We got there and headed to the Gion district where we checked into our Ryokan, which was an interesting experience of its own. The Gion district is a nice and quiet neighborhood with traditional Japanese style buildings, a creek running through it and several restaurants and cafes. It is one of the best areas to stay in Kyoto and you may even see some people walking around in traditional geishas. After getting settled in we headed out to one of Kyoto’s top rated Buddhist temples, Kiyomizu-Dera. The streets surrounding Kiyomizu-Dera were cool and the buildings were traditional Japanese style, but boy was it packed. The temple itself was pretty amazing, with a series of different temples and buildings up in the mountain. To read more about Kiyomizu-Dera click here.
After our time at the temple, we explored the city before eating Ramen at Musoshin. Musoshin had good ratings, was located near us in the Gion district and even though it originates in Kyoto has a restaurant in Toronto, Canada. The ramen was good, much better than back home, and better than the Osaka style ramen. Still, it didn’t top the spicy ramen I had in Tokyo. After dinner, walking through the streets of Gion was charming at night with the dimly lit Japanese lanterns.
The next day we headed to the Samurai Museum and took part in the Samurai Experience. We learned a lot about the Samurai, got to throw ninja stars and dress up in Samurai Armor. After the experience, like a typical tourist, I decided to buy a decorative samurai dagger set. I’d have liked the swords, but it would have been too hard to pack. And of course, despite being decorative by nature, I ran into problems at the airport. When I was boarding the plane, I was pulled aside and security had me unlock my suitcase which they brought back from checked baggage and checked out the swords. After a few minutes delay, the samurai swords were back in my suitcase and I was boarding the plane.
After the Samurai Experience and buying the swords, we walked around the Shinkyogoku Shopping District, ate some street food, checked out some a temple in the middle of the street and went back to our Ryokan. We were tired, it had been a long trip but after contemplating, decided not to skip out on the Fushimi Inari shrine. The day prior we checked out the top Buddhist temple, Kiyomizu-Dera, so we had to experience the best Shinto shrine. The Fushimi Inari shrine is famous from social media and is known for the hike up the mountain through 10, 000 torii gates. Unfortunately, it was raining but luckily the staff at the Ryokan gave us an umbrella. After spending some time there, we headed down, ate some street food such as chicken Yakitori, of course some more Wagyu beef skewers and Takoyaki. We were tired and full from the street food so after walking around a bit, trying the expensive, but extremely delicious Strawberries, called it an early night, and got ready for our trip back to Tokyo the next day.
Kyoto was nice and a nice change of pace from the bright lights of Tokyo and Osaka. Kyoto is super clean, feels very traditional and is charming and quiet. There are also a ton of temples to check out and it’s a good starting point if you want to go to Nara or the bamboo forest. We had a lot of fun there, and could have possibly used one more night, but for our short time in Japan, the two nights were perfect.
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