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531 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, 605-0074, Japan
Shimogamo Shrine
National Museum of Modern Art
Funny looking Daruma
The street close to the restaurant
Hello, I'm an English teacher living in Hokkaido travelling to Kyoto for the first time next week (4/10) for a few days to escape the snow. I'm hoping to pick up a walking/hiking guide when I get there but if anyone has any good recommendations please let me know (especially for quieter, less touristy routes). I plan too to go to Nara for a day to say hello to the deer. My base will be Higashiyama. Any advice will be much appreciated!
DO you want a quiet, less touristy place?
Then how about experiencing ZAZEN at a zen temple.
Quiet is guaranteed. If you can not keep it they will bash you!
Daitokuji Ryusen-an may accept foreigners.
Tel 075-491-0543
7 am - 8 am from Wednesday thru Sunday. Biginners should be 20 minutes earlier.
There's a nice but steep hike in Arashiyama, in western Kyoto (you can take the bus or JR from Kyoto station). You can hike up Iwatayama, to the Monkey Park. The monkeys are wild so be careful. They are fun to watch though and the view from the top is beautiful.
Here is some more information:
Arashiyama is BEAUTIFUL and I highly recommend going there.
Central Kyoto is great for walking through all the temples and shrines. Many of the temple grounds are fairly large and you'll get plenty of exercise just walking around there.
If you want to go to Osaka, I recommend Banpaku Park. It's not in Osaka central but accessible by train & monorail. It is the site of the Expo Osaka 1970. The park is also amazing and you can view bamboo trees, a rose garden, a Japanese garden, and more. The Museum of Ethnology in the park is a great place to explore as well.
For more info go to:
Have a great time!
Sonia
Take off your shoes before your step into any temples. The floor inside is clean and it's made of woods so it would be damaged if you are walking with shoes. There always are shoe racks for you so don't worry about losing your shoes : ).
This shop is filled with tea cups, bamboo tea spoons and implements, tea canisters, tea, etc. Everything needed to have a tea party!! Buy the tea canisters! They are the cheapest I have seen in Japan. They start at 350 yen. Buy the ones covered with Japanese paper or tatami. The largest ones of these two kinds are only 500 yen! What a deal!
Be careful not the wet the outside of the ones covered w/ Japanese paper. Once you wet it, the paper gets a bit sticky and it`s not as beautiful anymore.
pay 70dollars each for this!?! I tried this in Nara, but it was about half the price. The guys pulling you along dont speak English, which can be a good thing as ours talked our ear off and I saw other Japanese tourists suffering in the same way. They seem to be enjoying themselves though...
There's so many temples to choose from in Kyoto, but this is likely to feature on most peoples itinerary.
The Golden Temple is one of the most famous images of Kyoto, and deservedly so - be it glimmering in the summer sun or shimmering among the frost and snow in winter, it's an impressive sight. That is, if you can see it through the masses of Japanese tourists jostling for position to get their photo taken giving the peace sign by the lake.
There is a pathway leading you around the temple grounds, but once you've seen the temple, the rest is fairly ordinary (and the path doesn't offer any alternative views of the temple either) and seems to be designed purely to lead you to the souvenir stand. Who'd have thought you could encounter such blatent commericialism in Japan? [er...pretty much everyone. Ed.]
Putting cynical Matt to one side for the moment, it genuinely is worth the trip upto see, being a stunning, if slightly impractical example of a buddist retreat. It's also readily accessible from the tourist buses and at 500 yen, cheaper than a number of other temples.
Go for a walk in the Yasaka Shrine area of the Gion District in Kyoto, and stay for the evening when it is all lit up with thousands of lanterns.
In July the famous month-long Gion Matsuri festival is held here. It has everything you could want- lots of food, musicians, and parades with huge floats.
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