To start the day with, we headed off to Higashiyama-Ku area. We started with Maruyama-koen, a local park. We went through the busy Yasak-jinja shrine full of local tourists and took the direction of Chion-in.
Chion-in, 500 yens
This is an impressive temple from the outside, but decided not to visit it (having done enough temple visits in the recent period!).
Shoren-in, 500 yens - great surprise!
Then, we continued our walk towards Shoren-in temple. This temple is much more intimate and contains a superb landscape garden with beautiful flowers and a few bamboo trees in the back. Following the advise of the Lonely Planet, we decided to visit this template & garden, and we were absolutely delighted by our choice.
On our way back to the entrance of Maruyama-koen park, we also saw some nice professional shootings of Geisha.
Fushini Inari-Tasiha, free
Then, we went to Gion-Shijo station to take the Keihan Line to the famous and iconic Fushimi Inari shrine gates. We made a quick lunch on the busy street out of the station.
Fushimi Inari is probably one of the most touristic place you can find in Japan with its endless arcades of torii (shrine gates).
While many people do not go further than the first 200 meters, trying to take an infinite numbers of pictures, the site is actually very big (a 4km hike!) and I would recommend to allocate a good half-day to go through the hike partly in the forest going up the mountain. There will be plenty of space further for pictures, so don't get stuck with the tourists in the first shrine gates you see! Going the hike towards the end of the day was actually a good bet, as once passed the first barrier of tourist in the first torii, we were pretty much on our own for the rest of the walk.
I even saw a snake crossing one of the walk path going up to mountain.
Once we were done, we took the JR Nara line back to Kyoto station. From there, we took a short walk north of the station to Higahsi Hongan-ji temple.
Higahsi Hongan-ji - free
If you are around Kyoto station, I strongly recommend you to make a stop there. We visited it a little bit randomly, but found the site very impressive. The Main Hall (Goei-do) is actually said to be the second-largest wooden structure in Japan after Nara, sranding 38m high, 76m long and 58m wide.
Kyoto Station - free
After that, we came back to Kyoto station as the station is first of all famous for its futuristic inside architecture. Also, if you go to the 15th floor (through the escalator on the east side of the building), you can catch some great views from the Sky Garden terrace.
For our last dinner in Kyoto, we went to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant that we found very nice. The color indicates the price of the place and you can help-yourself taking plates from the conveyor-belt directly, but you could also order other dishes from the tablet located in your table. The restaurant called 廻転寿司ＣＨＯＪＩＲＯ 四条木屋町店 was located in 〒600-8011 Kyōto-fu (Ponto-cho parallel street). You need to come early if you want to avoid the long line.
Comments