Kyoto

We stayed in Kyoto for two days; the first was mainly about discovering the east side of the city, and most of the old temples that lie there, and the second day we explored the north west.

Kyoto station

Up until the Meiji restoration in the 1870s Kyoto was the de jure capital of Japan and the seat of the emperor. Having said that,  it has never had anything massive going for it in terms of industry, so it is a lot less built up than the giants of Tokyo and Osaka.

Nearly all of the city is 4 storeys or less, and is navigable by bus or on foot. The houses are also more traditional and rustic, with more wood, bamboo and corrugated steel than the concrete, steel and glass of Tokyo.

The highlight of the first day was the Fushimi Inari Taisha, a Shinto shrine complex in the wooded mountains to the west of the city, famous for its thousands and thousands of Torii gates.

It was a dramatic spectacle, and really emphasises how the Japanese religions and spiritual beliefs seem to have aesthetic values at their very core, in this case it was dramatic scale and quantity that was the tool for awe.

Kyoto is not short on temples and shrines,  and we also visited several more on the east side of the city that day;

Kiyomizu-dera 

Heian shrine

The second day was spent in the north west of the city, home to several more shrines/temples
One was the Kinkaku-Ji, a Buddhist temple with an amazing golden pagoda as its centrepiece.

Another was the Ryōan-Ji, which features a very famous gravel garden, as well as a larger expanse of Japanese landscaping.

The district of Arashiyama was where we spent our afternoon, the area is famous for many things, we climbed one of the surrounding mountains for the opportunity to get close to some of the local monkeys, but also for a nice view of the city.

It is also famous for its bamboo trail, commonly seen in promotional material for both this city and Japan in general. It is a relatively short walk though, but the mass of bamboo is vey impressive.

Out night was spent keeping ourselves up on coffee in a 24hr cafe, before getting a bus and a flight from Kansai airport (the floating one) at 8am. Our next destination, Hong Kong.