Kyoto, Japan

 Notes from the journal:

5/20
• As soon as we left the train station in Kyoto we realized an error in our itinerary had been made. The buses were SO crowded and everywhere we looked, the city was overrun with tourists (to be expected, but the concentration was a LOT higher than Tokyo due to the city being smaller). It was kind of funny watching the groups of old white people play follow-the-leader with the guides holding those tall flags so they didn’t lose any of their ducklings, but we quickly scrapped our original 3-day plan for Kyoto and I did a bunch of research to figure out something different - and I’m so glad I did!
5/21
• Woke up at 5am to do our half day of exploring Kyoto and left for the famous Kiyomizu-dera temple, stopping at Hanamikoji Street and Hokan-ji temple along the way to see them in the absence of tourists
• There weren’t toooo many tourists at Kiyomizu-dera since it was still early and the view of the city was beautiful, but it was already getting crowded
• Sat along the Kamo River reading (Tyler sewed his sandal straps lol) and we made friends with a Great Blue Heron who came up to us to say hello :)
• Went to Nishiki Market as it was opening but didn’t find anything good
• Stopped at the Kyoto Prefecture Library and randomly stumbled upon the International Picture Book Exhibition at the Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design. It was kind of a neat experience to sit and read picture books with people from around the world also reading picture books in various languages!
• Stopped at the Heian Shrine before heading to a local (not touristy) lunch restaurant Tyler had found where we had amazing sashimi and a warm rice milky drink (Google translate was calling it all sorts of weird things so I don’t really know)
• Sat in Maruyama Park for several hours, reading on the benches in the shade and watching fat street cats hang out

Read if I referred you to this post:

Contrary to what everyone on the internet tells you, I would not recommend Kyoto itself. If you do stop, I would only recommend spending a day or less. It’s very difficult to find authentic experiences there, which can be found much more easily elsewhere in Japan. The temples are beautiful, but there are lots of beautiful temples and torii gates all over Japan. You can feel that locals are very frustrated with tourists there (super understandable) and it’s just an awful vibe in my opinion. It looks and feels nothing like what you see online, BUT if you want to stop in Kyoto, especially for flights in/out of KIX, the great news is that there are SO many cool day trips from that area that are VERY off the beaten path! I’ll get to those in my post on the Shiga Prefecture. The only recommendation I have for Kyoto is the Tsukiakari restaurant which is open for lunch. Definitely get the rice milky drinky thingy! Also, I have a good track record with people thoroughly enjoying my recommendations, so I don’t give recommendations for something unless I honestly loved it, but that doesn’t mean I hated everything else!










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