Although most people don’t know much about Japan, almost everyone has heard of Kyoto, the cultural hub of Japan with a rich history and old buildings and shrines as it was mostly spared from the destruction of WW2. We only spent two days there so we weren’t able to visit a lot, but we still saw some interesting places and experienced a lot.
Kyoto is close to Nagoya, so it took us less than an hour to get there by Shinkansen, even though we rode the slower Kodama.
We had a reservation at a Kimono rental place to get changed into traditional clothing. As we were already running late and the buses were too full to board, we hurried along a riverbank and arrived just in time.
After lunch, we walked around for a while and visited Kiyomizudera, a famous temple, located in the south of Kyoto. It took some time to get there and unfortunately, we didn’t go all the way up and only saw the entrance. The surrounding town was really nice though and we spent some time strolling around.
We started our second day off by going to Arashiyama, a huge bamboo forest located in the northwest of Kyoto.
After Arashiyama, we went to Kinkakuki, the golden temple. I don’t know what it was used for or if it is even made out of real gold, but it looked really nice and had lots of beautiful and natural landscape next to it.
Finding something to eat afterwards was unexpectedly hard as there were too many restaurants to choose from, but we decided on one specializing in Omuraisu which is basically rice topped by an omelette with other stuff around. I got the extra-large mushroom version which was was too much, but I somehow managed to finish it all.
Returning to the Ryokan later that day, we took a short break and then went drinking in a nearby Izakaya. The place was looking run-down and we hesitated at first due to us being the only people there, but the food was really good and we had a great time.
Because our train back was leaving fairly early, we went to the station at around 10:00, exploring the surrounding area. Kyoto station is definitely one of the nicest stations I’ve ever been to since it’s really open and has a cool stairway that lights up, an observation deck with a nice view, a sky bridge and lots more.
Although we didn’t have much time and sprinted from place to place, the experience was definitely worth it. I plan on coming back here though as we just didn’t have enough time to savor all the nice things Kyoto has to offer. Trying out a kimono and 下駄 - wooden sandals - was a nice experience too which I will definitely not repeat cause it was waaay too hot and these sandals just hurt and make it hard to walk.