Kyoto – A City of Temples and Good Food
Day 1
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
To get to Kyoto from Hiroshima we had booked a relatively early (but not as early as the day before) shinkansen (bullet train). We enjoyed our hotel buffet breakfast and then made our way to the Hiroshima station ready to embark on our next adventure.
While waiting for our train we got a prime example of why people hate tourists. Along the edge of the train platforms is a continuous yellow line. When a train is approaching you are supposed to stay behind it, you know so you don’t get hurt. Even when they were in Japanese I could hear the anger in the announcements as they yelled for people to get behind the yellow line. They said it in English at least 10 times. Finally after several minutes staff and tour operators were able to get the large group of oblivious tourists to stop leaning over the gates trying to get pictures of the approaching train and get behind the yellow line so that the shinkansen could pass.
Kiyomizu-dera
Our first stop after dropping our bags off at our Kyoto hotel was to go to Kiyomizu-dera, one of the three main touristed temples in Kyoto. We hopped on a nearby bus (which used Arabic numerals, thank goodness, making it much easier to navigate and confirm we were on the right bus). Fortunately the stop we got on was nearly empty, so we were able to get seats, because the next bus stop picked up a full bus load of people, mostly folks like us heading to the Kiyomizu-dera. To get away from some of the people we opted to get off a street earlier than google recommended and walked up a side street that was crowded but navigable.
As we neared the temple we saw “no food beyond this point” signs, and a quaint noodle shop just before the signs. We decided it was as good as any place to have lunch and ordered some egg drop udon. Despite being at the foot of the popular temple it was very quiet and quite delicious.
We were now ready to brave the temple crowds the internet had warned us about. But surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as we were expecting. We got to Kiyomizu-dera right around noon so maybe everyone else was still eating? Maybe we had just over prepared mentally. Regardless, the temple was beautiful. And I don’t think crowds took away from the experience. The temple has a sort of tree house feel as it is made of wood and perched atop the side of a hill.
Exploring
After the Kiyomizu-dera we had a few hours to kill before our pre booked tea demonstration scheduled for 3:30. We ambled through the shopping streets where we realized the bulk of the crowds had been hiding. It was a little crowded for window shopping so after enjoying some kakigori (Japanese style shaved ice) we decided to check out the nearby Kodaji Temple instead.
This temple had a set route to follow which was kinda nice to know that we saw everything without having to study a map. Kodaji also had a lot more natural elements and it even has it’s own mini bamboo forest. Being a smaller temple we were able to find gaps in people to get pictures and enjoy various elements to ourselves.
While there we also saw a Russian(?) family where the two children were being an absolute menace and not listening to their parents in the slightest. The staff kept trying to politely get the kids to stop running into forbidden areas. At one point one of the kids started playing with the bamboo fence. Thanks for the reminder to not have kids, traveling with them sounds so hard.
Tea Time
Our tea ceremony demonstration came with kimonos. Partly because I couldn’t figure out how to prebook the demonstration without it, but I wasn’t upset about it. Upon arrival they sent Andrew and I to the separate dressing rooms to get changed. It was neat to have all the different staff members pass us around for the various steps, under robe, hair, outer robe and sash, and finally flowers. Despite being 5′-9″ I still had a decent selection to choose from, Andrew on the other hand, also at 5′-9″ was only able to choose from solid or lightly patterned neutrals and the one solid pink one that he picked to have some fun. He had really hoped for a cool pattern that some of the other fellas got to wear.
Once we were dressed they sent us into their private gardens so that we could take pictures in our kimonos. We learned that traditional tea ceremonies usually include time to be spent in gardens before hand so that you can clear your mind and notice nature.
The matcha tea ceremony was really interesting. We attended a shortened version of a traditional tea ceremony, but the tea master explained the process and demonstrated how the matcha would be made, then we all got to whisk our own and drink it. Since the matcha is unsweetened, it was served with cute traditional sweets to balance out the bitterness.
Dinner and Fushimi Inari
For dinner Andrew decided he wanted to have sushi so we found a place with obanzie. For food to be considered obanzie, at least half of its ingredients must be produced or processed in Kyoto. We went to Nagomi which ended up being one of our favorite meals of the entire trip. It was also the first time we ate somewhere where we had to take our shoes off which was a fun cultural experience. They had low tables with feet holes in the ground so we didn’t actually have to sit on the ground which was really nice. We ended up ordering like a tapas style place adding additional orders after every item because we had no concept of how big each of the items were. I hope that wasn’t too annoying for the staff. Everything was fantastic, but I loved the tempura fig so much I had to order it twice! (If anyone wants to take a stab at deep frying figs for me, I will happily supply the figs from our tree!)
Somehow we still had energy after dinner so we figured we would knock out another of the big temples and go check out Fushimi Inari. Fushimi Inari is known for their thousands of Torii gates. Per advice from others we went at night to avoid crowds. The gates were all lit up which was cool, but we couldn’t really explore much else outside of the gates as the rest of the area was closed or dark.
After having climbed plenty of mountains this trip we decided the viewpoint over the city was a long enough climb for us. We even saw a stag beetle climbing the steps as well! It was lovely, although my phone camera is not the best at night time photos. Something comical we noticed was that as you got higher and higher the vending machine prices got more expensive. So either bring your own drinks or expect to pay that premium when you’re desperate to quench your thirst! (To be fair whoever stocks them has to climb those stairs too.)
Day 2
Thursday, October 2, 2025
We didn’t have much planned for our second day in Kyoto, wanting to have flexibility based on how we were feeling. We considered renting bikes, but opted against not really knowing where we’d want to go. And our butts were a little sore from the ill fitted saddles 2 days prior. Instead we decided to check out the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden, because I had been itching to see some more gardens. The national garden was a massive area that felt more like a city park. It had cute pockets and a nice birding area as well as a “cricket field” -for insects not the sport. There were even some neat historical residencies in the park but they all required private tours which you probably had to book out way ahead of time, and they only had limited English options anyways so we did not tour them.
As it neared lunch time we headed south to try one of the walk-in simplified shojin ryori, a traditional monk inspired vegetarian meal. We weren’t sure how hard it’d be to get in to one so we wanted to get there early. We walked into this adorable little space, Otera House, that felt like a converted town house. There was one elder women at the counter and us. It wasn’t long before another Japanese women came in and sat at the counter. The two guests and the cook were chatting it up, making us feel like we made an excellent lunch choice. The owner brought out the set meal and it was nice to sample a huge variety of things without having to think about what to order. We both really enjoyed the food and the experience and were glad we came early because by the time we left they had a sign saying they were fully booked (I think a group had called ahead while we were eating).
Shopping Break
After lunch we made our way towards a craft center. Andrew has been wanting to buy a traditional glass wind chime (furin) and the ones at the tourist stalls hadn’t spoken to him. Luckily he found one he liked there! Apparently the glass chimes are only supposed to be hung in the summer, so I’m assuming they had less options on the shelves since we were there in the fall. We make our own rules though with our windchime on our porch at home in November.
While perusing the rest of the store, another Japanese couple (through a lot of Google translating back and forth) mentioned their daughter was about to go to America and they were shopping for a gift for the host family. The couple wanted to know what the host family might like from Japan. Andrew and I are probably not the average Americans in terms of what gifts we like but hopefully we gave them good advice. We later ran into them in a different part of the store and I wanted to point out some pretty candy that I thought would make a good gift, trying to signal that we had bought some for some folks back home, but either they misunderstood or were just being extra nice, they bought a box for us! It was so unexpected but a memorable experience. We gave them a couple Portland, OR stickers in return but they also seemed confused by them. Hopefully they like them.
Gorgeous Gardens & Sippable Sake
There was another temple nearby, the Heian Jingu Shrine, so we figured we should probably go check it out. Heian Jingu Shrine came with a beautiful garden. This was the garden I was hoping to explore today when we had gone to the national garden. It had lots of plants, and I’m sure is stupid busy in the spring with all the cherry blossoms. Some of the Japanese maples (although I guess they’re just maples here) were even starting to change, but it was still mostly too early for a lot of the foliage. Those gardens must be spectacular in peek foliage.
After the garden we saw there was a sake brewery/tasting room, Matsui, I had saved on our map relatively close by so we decided to go check it out. It had an interesting charge-up card system. We loaded cash on to our souvenir card with an anime character pictured that we were told was depicting the “spirit of sake”. There were various machines with different flavors and styles that you would go to to fill your cup by swiping the card before hand. We got to sample a lot of different types including some gin cocktails as they had started distilling as well.
A Meal Worth Queuing For
Next we rode a very crowded bus back to our hotel for a brief respite- it’s amazing how well utilized their public transportation is. Not really wanting to go too far for dinner we saw that there was okonomiyaki place with amazing reviews basically next door to our hotel, Yumemiya. We may as well compare it to the Hiroshima style while we’re in Japan!
We walked up to the restaurant and there was a line of about 8 people outside. Since the place only had 3 tables and a 4 person counter that’s a decent size line. Fortunately we weren’t super hungry and we didn’t want to find a different place to eat, and lines generally mean good food so we got in line. This was the only restaurant we actually waited in a true line for on our entire trip. There were a couple places with waits in Korea, but I think here we ended up waiting an hour? maybe longer I’m not sure.
Once inside we got another shoe free table, this time having to sit cross cross under the table – no fancy drop floor here. With our okonomiyaki we also ordered “cheese on potato” partly because the English name sounded funny. It was way too much food. We ate most of it at least. It was very good, at some point someone even came in to take a professional looking photo of the chef! But both of us agreed that we preferred Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Now we know.
After dinner, tattoo free Andrew went to go check out the hotel baths while I was stuck bathing in our room like a westerner. We stayed at the Royal Twin Hotel and he said the baths here were nicer than our previous hotel, but also much more crowded/utilized. I wouldn’t know how the women’s ones compare since they didn’t allow tatoos without a covering. I did later learn that some places will allow you to wrap the larger tattoos in like an ace bandage, but I didn’t learn that until too late, thinking a “bandage” meant more like a band-aid and that mine was too big.
Day 3
Friday, October 3, 2025
For our last day in Kyoto we had left our itinerary open to do some exploring based on vibes. The last of the three main temples, Arashiyama, was on our radar but wanting to be different we opted to hit up a different temple that is still popular but not as popular.
We hopped on another packed to the brim train to the town of Uji. Uji is known for its matcha tea and it has a lovely temple, Byodoin Temple. “Phoenix Hall”, the most prominent feature of the temple is pictured on the 10 yen coin. The entrance fee also included a small museum with a lot of artifacts from the original temple which was a nice change from some of the other temples we had explored.
Since the area is known for tea we obviously opted to get some matcha. There was a lovely tea house in the temple grounds that we went to. They only used tea leaves from nearby farms in Uji City. Modern tourists mostly seem to seek out matcha ice cream and parfaits but we really enjoyed the traditional tea.
After tea we wandered along the scenic Uji River and made our way back to town for lunch. I had picked two separate options from my phone only to walk up and find out they both weren’t opening that day for mysterious reasons. So rather than hunt further I took it as a sign and had us go into the next place we saw open, a Neapolitan pizza restaurant.
It was good pizza, but it was also a lot of food and a pricey meal, as they were an officially accredited Neapolitan establishment, with their certificate hanging on the wall and everything. We had kind of been hoping for an interesting Japan twist to the pizza, but c’est la vie.
After lunch it was time to head back to our hotel to grab our bags and catch our shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. One city left on our grand adventure. We were both excited to see what Tokyo would bring, but also getting very home sick and missing our kitty cat.
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