Hi there, I'm Amy from Cakes with Faces
Welcome back to my Japlanning series
Of tips & advice to help you plan your trip to Japan.
Before I start, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's pledged on my Kickstarter
For my Japan travel guide
If you'd like a copy
It's running until the 2nd April
The link's in the decsription.
Today's all about Kyoto.
I'm going to talk you through my itinerary,
What I did, what the highlights were
And what I'd do differently if I went back
Then at the end I've got some tips about where to stay
And how to get around.
There's video's about quite a few of the places I'm going to mention on my channel
They're all together in a playlist
And there's new Japan videos every Thursday if you want to subscribe.
Kyoto is the old capital of Japan.
It's known for being historic, with lots of temples & shrines.
I think it's worth mentioning that the whole city isn't old
It's very much a modern place
Where people live & go to work
But there are pockets of beautiful, historic streets
Kyoto's part of the Golden Route
Which is the most popular itinerary for people travelling around Japan
It's like the Greatest Hits of Japan.
It includes Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka
And sometimes also Hakone
For hot springs & Mount Fuji.
What this means is, lots of people go to Kyoto
It's a really popular destination.
So it's become pretty crowded
Sometimes that can detract a bit from the things you want to see
So if you're expecting a profound experience in the ancient Japanese temples & zen gardens
In reality you might be surrounded by crowds.
It's worth bearing in mind that if historic Japan's what you want to see
Kyoto's not the only place you can see it.
There's lots of historic places around the country
That are less popular and therefore less crowded
So they might offer you a more unique experience
There's several places that have become known as Little Kyoto
Like Kanazawa
You can look them up online.
What Kyoto does have to offer
Is a lot of major temples & shrines
And interesting places all together in one city.
So while you can see this sort of thing elsewhere
You might not see so much of it all in one place.
So, on to my itinerary
I spent 4 nights in Kyoto
So that was 3 full days
And the morning before I got the train on to Tokyo.
You could easily spend longer
There were loads of things I didn't do
I spent one of those days out on a day trip
There's other day trips you could do as well
Including Osaka, which is actually really close
It's only half an hour on the regular train
Or 15 minutes on the bullet train
It is possible to go to Kyoto on a day trip from Tokyo
Some people do it
But I wouldn't really recommend it
It's 2.5 hours on the bullet train
So it's quite a long trip
And there's so much to do
There's more than a day's worth of things to do
So I think it'd be pretty tiring as a day trip
So when I went, I'd just arrived in Japan
At the airport in Tokyo
I hopped straight onto the bullet train
To Kyoto
I had wondered beforehand if that would be a good idea
But it was fine, everything went ok
I'd landed quite late in the day
So it was dark, and then we got to Kyoto in the evening
If it's your first time going on the bullet train
I'd recommend having one of your trips during the day
So you can see out the windows
And see all the scenery going past
Because it's a lot more interesting than when it's dark.
The next morning we walked from our hotel
Which was by Kyoto Station
Across the river
To the Southern Higashiyama area
Which is where a lot of the main sights are
It was the start of October
And it was so warm
It was just like summer in the UK
It was also raining so it was really humid
So we stopped for kakigori (shaved ice)
Which was just the perfect thing to cool down
And we were right by one of the main temples: Kiyomizudera
We didn't pay to go inside
But we walked around the outside part
And onto the platform, where you get a view over all the trees
And the mountains, and a pagoda
From there, we walked around some of the old streets
Which had a lot of touristy, souvenir shops.
I'd made a note of a few places to hit on our route
Including Sanenzaka and Ninenzaka
Which are two old, sloping streets
Which are known for being really picturesque
It was so busy
There were people everywhere!
It did make it a bit difficult to enjoy
But actually, once we'd walked away from the famous streets
Into the backstreets
It was a bit quieter
And much calmer
And easier to enjoy
So there's a tip for you:
The most famous spots might not necessarily be the best.
In the afternoon, we took the train a couple of stops to the south
To Fushimi Inari Shrine
Which is the famous shrine with the thousands of red gates
It's one of the places I was most excited about going to in Kyoto.
The shrines with the red gates are called inari shrines
And they're my favourite sort
They have fox statues as well, which is always good.
The trail of the red gates at Fushimi Inari
Goes up a small mountain
Called Mount Inari
Now I hadn't realised before we went
That it would be such a hike
It was a lot longer than I expected
Maybe it was the humidity
But it was actually a bit of a work-out!
But it was worth it!
I loved walking through all the red gates.
They really stand out against all the greenery all around you
Then once you get to the top
There's a really good view of the city
At the bottom it's really crowded
You'll probably find you're walking along in a queue of people
But most people don't make it past the first couple of sections
They'll turn round and go back
So if you carry on, a bit further up
You might even find you've got the whole place to yourself in some sections
So you can really enjoy it
Take your pictures
And it's definitely worth climbing that bit further up
Overall, Fushimi Inari was the highlight of my time in Kyoto
I'd definitely recommend it
We hung around till it got dark
Then it was a lot quieter
And even more atmospheric
It's said to be haunted
And it did have kind of a spooky atmosphere in the dark
I don't know if it's true,
But someone told me there can be wild boar at night time
Which can be dangerous
So if you go at night
Just watch out for that
We had dinner back at Kyoto Station
Which is an amazing building inside
There's a whole floor of ramen restaurants
And surprisingly, one of them had a vegetarian option
Which is quite rare in Japan
The next day, I went on a day trip to Hiroshima & Miyajima
It's about 2 hours on the bullet train
So it's quite a long trip
But it was worth it
We saw the famous Atomic Bomb Dome
The Peace Park & Museum,
And all the origami cranes
The museum is excellent
All the descriptions are in English so everyone can understand it
While obviously I wouldn't say it's a fun place to visit
It is quite hard-hitting
And it's a really good museum
I think it's important that everyone should learn about & remember what happened.
There is more to do in Hiroshima
Even just from the short time I spent there
It seemed like a really lovely city
I was just there for the morning
Then in the afternoon we went on to Miyajima
Which is about half an hour on the train
You can also get a boat there as well
Miyajima is one of the most beautiful places I've been
There's the tori gate that looks like it's floating in the water
There's Itsukushima Shrine
There's wild deer walking around
And you can take a cable car up a mountain
Once the tide goes out
You can walk right up to the gate
The whole place was just really lovely
I'd definitely recommend it
At the moment they're renovating the tori gate
So unfortunately it's covered in scaffolding
It started in June 2019
And it's still ongoing at the moment
But I'd say it's still worth going to Miyajima
Because there are lots of other things as well
On the third day, which was my last full day
I went to Arashiyama
It's on the edge of the city
You can get there on the local train
It's just a couple of stops
It doesn't take long
The most famous part
Is the bamboo forest
There's also the Moon Crossing Bridge
Which goes across the river
It's really wide & open
There's shrines & you can go walking in the woodland
I didn't go there, but lots of people like the monkey park
Which is up a mountain
There's also a scenic railway that goes along by the river
And at certain time of the year
You can go on a boat trip
From there, I took a tram called the Keifuku Electric Railway
Also known as the Randen
To Kinkakuji
The Golden Temple
Which is one of the most famous sights in Kyoto
It really does look stunning
It's covered in gold
It looks absolutely perfect & shining
Because it's one of the main sights
It's also really busy
You can see from this video
How hard it is to get a good picture
It's not a huge place
You see the temple across the lake
Then there's a small trail to walk around the gardens
After that I'd been planning to explore Gion
But it started raining quite a bit
So I decided to go the next morning instead
This was the last morning before getting the bullet train to Tokyo
Gion is the geisha area of Kyoto
It's got historic streets
Old buildings and canals
It was here that I found the historic Kyoto I'd been looking for
Now I don't know if it was just by chance
But in the morning it really wasn't that busy
It felt really mysterious
With all the dark, wooden buildings
And all the bamboo shutters
All the places looked really private
I think you'd be lucky to see a geisha
But I really enjoyed just strolling around the streets
If you go there
Make sure you go to Shimbashi Dori
It's supposed to be the loveliest street in the whole of Asia
Now I don't know about that
But it was very beautiful
So that's what I did in Kyoto
There's so many things I didn't do
And loads of things I'd do if I went back
Like the Philosopher's Path
Which is a walk along the canal
Lots of people go to Nara for the deer park
There's loads of other shrines & temples
Ginkakuji, the silver temple
It's a bit less showy than the golden temple
If I went back, I'd go to Uji
Which is just south-east of Kyoto
It looks really beautiful
And you can go half an hour outside the city
To Kurama & Kibune
Which are villages in the mountains
You can go hiking
And there's a beautiful shrine with lanterns going all the way up the steps
In the summer, the restaurants there build decks out over the river
To keep you cool
Which looks like a lovely experience
They also have nagashi somen
Flowing noodles
Where they have a bamboo shoot
And they flow the noodles along for you to catch
Which looks really fun
That's also only in the summer
Next, on to some more practical things
And where to stay
I stayed near Kyoto Station
Which isn't the prettiest part of town
I've heard a lot of people arrive in Kyoto
Expecting beautiful, historic Japan
And they're a bit disappointed
Because it looks just like a normal city
I stayed there because it's pretty convenient for the trains
Especially when we had to get up early to go on a day trip
If you want to stay closer to the main sights
Stay in the Gion or Higashiyama area
From there, you can walk to the main city centre / downtown area too.
You can walk there from the station
It's not a short walk
But if like me, you don't mind walking
And walk 10 miles a day when you're on a trip
It is do-able
You can walk part of the way along by the river
Which is a nice place to stop & have lunch
Next: how to get around
Kyoto is 2.5 hours from Tokyo on the bullet train
The shinkansen
It's really comfortable
So the trip doesn't even seem that long
Once you're there, some of Kyoto is walkable
If you like walking
It's quite flat, so you can also hire bikes
There's a couple of train lines
I used one of the JR lines to get to Arashiyama
And also to Fushimi Inari
You can use your JR Pass for the JR lines
And for the subway & the other train lines
You can use your Suica card from Tokyo
Or any other IC card if you have one.
Most people get around by bus
I didn't use the buses
I'm not a big fan of them
I always feel like you don't really know where you are when you're on them
But there were times when it would have made things a bit easier
Like on the way back from Kinkakuji
We ended up walking quite a long way in the rain
To get to the station
Kinkakuji (the golden temple) is the only place that's a bit tricky to get to
It's on the north-west edge
It's not very close to other things
But it did work quite well pairing it with Arashiyama
And using the tram to get between them
Something else you need to know
Is, on the whole, Kyoto doesn't stay up very late
So don't leave it too late to have dinner
Because places will start to close
The nightlife district is Pontocho
Which is another place I'd go if I went back
That's along by the river
So I hope that helped
It's definitely not the ideal itinerary
But it's what I did
I definitely missed a lot of things out
So if you've been to Kyoto
Tell me your favourites in the comments
And remember to take a look at my Kickstarter
It's running until the 2nd April
And I'll see you next week
On Thursday
Bye bye!