Japan 2023 - day 4 - Kyoto

Time for Kyoto!

07.04.2023

Getting there

On the fourth day of our trip to Japan we woke up really early - we wanted to take one of the first Shinkansens to Kyoto that day.

We boarded the train around 8

 

From the inside of the train at Shinagawa station

I was really hooked on getting seats together with my husband on the side of the train that overlooks Fuji-san, since we didn't find the time to go there directly. Unfortunately, when we went to buy tickets the day before, it turned out that there are only individuals seats left and all the seats by the window are taken! To be honest, I got kinda histeric since I REALLY wanted to see Fuji-san, even if from afar.

In the end my emotional outburst turned out to be in vain - the person that was supposed to be seating by the window next to me did not appear and I was able to enjoy the views to my heart's content. The bad part is that... everything was so couldy that I did not se Fuji-san at all! Epic loss if you ask me.

Evil clouds in question

Being there

Upon arriving we loitered some around gift shops at the train station and then were greeted with the scorching hot outside. Our first stop on the list was Kiyomizu-dera, a buddhist temple on the slope of a hill. The bus stop was neatly marked right next to the exit. We were surprised by the size of the queue, but I guess it's nothing strange since it is a very popular tourist attraction. We din't fit into the first one that arrived, but thankfully we were able to boaard the next one.

Queue to the bus

As I already mentioned, the temple is located on a foothill and it was crazy hot (like 36 Celcius degrees) so the short walk from the station up the stairs made us (or at least me) terribly sweaty and out of breath. Additionally, the place was swarmed by other tourists,  but none of these could discourage me. I was mesmerised by the first temple I've seen in Japan!

Not the main building, but it's one of the first
temple buildings that you see

Hubby and some nice lady in kimono
 in the background

Walking through this tunnel of chimes
 was magical

Ema plates

Mighty pigeon about to break some rules

Another temple building deeper
into the forest

Inside of the temple was really interesting
 and it smelt so nice

I didn't manage to take any nice photos of the Kiyomizu-dera from the outside, but you can just look them up lol. 

AND THEN IT STARTED RAINIG!

And we didn't have an umbrella, despite my husband suggesting buying one on our way here. I was the one to discourage him from doing so. Oopsie daisy.

We planned to wander around Gion some more, but the streets were rather empty. Eventually, we dropped by the Yasaka Pagoda, but didn't have much strength left to admire it. 

You can see it was still rather rainy

Finally, we went to see Pontocho Alley - pretty, traditional street. 

Pontocho side alley 

After that we went to a nearby bus stop to catch a ride to our accomodation for that night. Ryokan we choose was located in Sakyo ward - a bit on the outskirts, but thanks to that it was way cheaper! It took nearly an hour to get there, but mostly because there were stops like every 200 meters.

Around halfway there the views started to get really good - there were more mountains and more nature, which I love. When we finally reached the final stop, I felt like we entered a different world!