Life has been quite crazy for me lately and I have neglected to share my travel blog posts. Apologies for that! It’s really difficult to narrow down the highlights of my Japan trip, but I have to say many of them were in Kyoto. While we didn’t stay in Kyoto, it was quite easy and fast to get there thanks to the Shinkansen from Osaka. This leg of the trip involved very careful planning and working smart was of the utmost importance to make the most of our days in Kyoto. Because much of what we wanted to see wasn’t in the city centre, we decided to look at the map and do certain parts of the city on each day in order to not waste too much time on travel. This meant that we couldn’t really go back to places we loved, but we love seeing as much as we can. Lots of walking, but hey that means we earned our food!
Before travelling to the Kansai region, we were in Tokyo, click here to read that blog post. If you want to read about the Osaka leg of the trip, click here.
Day 1: Monkeys, Temples, and Bamboo Forest
For the first day, we focused on the areas west and north of the centre of Kyoto. This involved changing trains, but it was pretty easy.
Our first stop was Kimono Forest, an art installation at Arashiyama Station that has kimono patterns on these pillars. At night the pillars illuminate. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it at night, but it was still nice to see during the day. As always, I love how you’re surrounded by art and beauty in Japan.
Walking to the monkey park was intense and during warm months it is really important to have enough water and to bring a battery powered fan, these were lifesavers for us on walking intensive days. There is only one air conditioned room on the way up to the monkey park so pace yourself and be prepared! Feeding the monkeys and seeing them up close was pretty cool and there were some beautiful views of the city. The hike was worth it!
Afterwards, we walked to Tenryu-ji and the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. These destinations are incredibly popular and it can be really hard to get good photos by yourself in the bamboo forest. Unfortunately, when we went we didn’t get to see the changing colours of the leaves, but the skies were so clear and blue that it looked so pretty. The gardens and ponds are especially beautiful. Keep in mind that depending on which ticket you purchase, you’ll see different things. One of my favourite photos to take were ultrawide shots of the bamboo forest.
Some more walking and we get to Jojakko-ji Temple. Lots of climbing stairs with this one, but we were rewarded with beautiful sights of the temple and a great view of Kyoto. We were getting hungry after all of this walking so we decided to grab some lunch.
While we couldn’t find any pure vegetarian places nearby, we did find places with options. Not far from Jojakko-ji was a restaurant called Ogura Cha-Ya that specialised in noodles. Just happened to be located right by where we were going, and that seems to be a common theme in the reviews for the restaurant on Google, just stumbled upon it while we were walking and it was lovely! Whenever I travel, I love to do things that I couldn’t ordinarily do at home and I really loved how they had low tables and you could take your shoes off (I know my feet needed a break, as comfy as my shoes are). The music was really nice calming covers of Beatles songs so I really loved that. There was a little bit of a wait, but it was totally worth it.
Afterwards, Eoin and I were walking around on our own, making the trek to Daikaku-ji Temple. It’s important to mention that temples are cash only for the most part so make sure you have enough cash! They’re not expensive to visit at all. Also important for the vending machines, and oh boy did these come in handy while we were walking from place to place. Eoin grabbed a coffee and I got some cold green tea. This temple was also really stunning.
To cap off the day, we met up with my parents and my brother and we all made our way to the most beautiful temple in Kyoto, Kinkaku-ji Temple, with its gold leaf exterior, beautiful during golden hour! Yes, the golden one! We had to take a bus there, but fares weren’t expensive and you just use your IC card (Suica, Pasmo, whichever you prefer). What’s interesting about the buses here is that you don’t pay when you get on, you just enter through the back door of the bus and pay and exit through the front.
Afterwards we walked around the city centre and got some dinner. We went to this ramen restaurant called Moon & Back. Not a pure vegan place, but it had vegan options, so we were happy with that. It’s a bit pricey, but really good. Eoin and I were on the same page and ordered the vegan spicy ramen and we shared some sake that came with a souvenir cup to take away.
Day 2: Pagodas, Temples, and Shrines
On our second day, we focused on the east and south of the city. We started our day early enough walking around the beautiful Higashiyama-ku neighbourhood, which has beautiful temples and shrines. This area gets particularly crowded during the afternoon and you’ll see a lot of people dressed up in kimonos and yukatas getting their photos taken. Of course, while walking around I had to get a matcha ice cream and we found a place that had a vegan version of it, so refreshing!
After walking around the area of the Yasaka Pagoda, we went to Kiyomizu-dera. The views are incredible and there’s so much history. We also visited the Yasaka Shrine and grabbed some lunch at a vegan restaurant called Silver Back’s Cafe. While it’s geared towards tourists, the food was excellent.
We went to the Nintendo Store inside this shopping centre (also saw some Alphonse Mucha stuff, which was really cool. I love art nouveau!) and then as we reached sunset, it was time for the other big highlight of Kyoto, going to Senbon Torii/Fushimi Inari Shrine. My knees were killing me so I couldn’t climb all the way to the top, but I made it pretty high up and my brother and my husband both made it to the top. As you can expect, the sunset was incredible and the city lights are so beautiful! On the way up we saw a cat. In the photos below, you can see it transform from day to night. Beautiful at any time of day!
All in all, it was an action-packed two days in Kyoto and I’d love to go back! Stay tuned for the Seoul blog post!
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