Gittleson Goes Abroad: Kyoto: The City of History and Charm

While Tokyo may be bright, colorful and a fantastic place to people watch, Kyoto had more charm than any other city we visited in Japan.

We arrived in kyoto a little before lunch and immediately wanted to start exploring. We rented bikes for the day and made our way to kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavillion. The Pavillion was beautiful but the area was filled with tourists. Once we took our pictures and wandered for a bit we decided to bike to a castle recommended by Ben's friend. The Nijo Castle was featured in the popular film The Last Samurai and was pretty cool. You were able to explore the inside of the castle but the paintings on the walls were all reproductions.

Riding around Kyoto on our first (and only sunny) day

Super gold, super pretty.

Taking picture at the Golden Pavillion of girls in kimonos

On our ride back to the hostel we came across the Nishiki market. We tried a few traditional sweets, looked at the wares at the stalls and then we were on our way. Closer to our hostel we encountered a few people holding a traditional tea ceremony on a platform in the canal. We stopped to take pictures and they kindly offered us tea. It was Matcha (not my favorite) but we drank it in the polite 4 sips necessary and went back to the hostel.

Busy market in the afternoon

Drinking Matcha in the canal

That night we grabbed dinner with some other people from our hostel. We went to downtown Gion and I SAW A REAL LIFE GEISHA. I was so excited to spot her (it's rare to see one and we definitely weren't paying the high cost to be entertained by one), so this was a really pleasant surprise. I tried to ask for her photo but she politely ran away.

The next day, we tried to beat the rain and crowds by waking up early for Fushimi Inari Shrine.

And we were successful!

Fushimi Inari is breathtakingly beautiful and feels otherworldly. Walking up the mountain takes almost 3 hrs top to bottom (at least for us). There are varies shrines with guardian fox deities throughout the walk and we saw quite a few people lighting candles and praying. Since we got there so early (7ish), there were very few tourist and the majority of people were visiting shrines. It started drizzling slightly as we walked and that made the shrine seem even more ethereal. I could go on and on another how much I enjoyed this shrine.

It wasn't even 10 by the time we had finished, but the weather was gross. We didn't want to spend too much time walking around outside so we made our way to the Yudanaka Shibu hotsprings area. The hotsprings are famous for it's monkey patrons that like to hang out in the springs in the winter. The water was relaxing, the view was beautiful (you were looking out at mountains) and the rain didn't bother us.

The next day we went to Nara but that place gets a post to itself. I loved it there.

When we returned from Nara, Ben rested at the hostel while I explored the nearby Kiyomizu temple. It was really beautiful and I was determined to go back. It's a popular place to rent kimono and take pictures so the streets were filled with the colorful outfits. The street going to Kiyomizu was also host to many shops filled with pottery, jewelry and traditional art. I don't know how but I was able to use some self restraint and didn't spend all my money there.

That night Ben and I ate dinner along the river and walked around downtown Gion for a bit. No Geisha sightings this time :(

The following day we left the hostel early (what a surprise!) to go to the nearby town of Arashiyama to play with monkeys and hang out in bamboo. Since the Arashiyama monkey park didn't open until 9am, we made our way to the famous bamboo forest first. I think we had fairly high expectations (it's on the cover of Lonely Planet!), so we were pretty underwhelmed. It was definitely beautiful but it was much smaller than we expected.

The monkey park was a short 15 minute walk away (plus another 10 minute walk up the mountain). There's a small building at the top of the trail and all the monkeys hang out there. Why? Visitors can buy food to feed the monkeys. But be warned. Don't make eye contact with them! There were signs all over about making the monkeys nervous with eye contact.

That night we stayed at a Ryokan, a type of hotel with traditional Japanese style room. This includes tatami mats, floor bedding and robes. While it was relaxing to be out of a dorm, we didn't really like our Ryokan. It wasn't anything special and, at least to me, smelled really weird.

That night we ventured maybe 100 ft from the Ryokan to a Okonomiyaki restaurant. It's a Japansee pancake made from cabbage and your choice of meat or noodles. It was really delicious.

The next day we left for Osaka.

Peace!