5 Places in Kyoto you probably haven’t heard of 🇯🇵

5 Places in Kyoto you probably haven’t heard of 🇯🇵

Kyoto is one of the most famous cities in Japan, known for its history, culture, and beauty. And while you might have heard about how popular it’s been getting recently, there’s still so many places that have remained under the radar. So in this video we’re gonna go through five places in Kyoto that you might not’ve heard of before that we’ve personally been to recently and really enjoyed, including things to do, places to eat and some useful tips. So, let’s get started! The first place is an 8 minute walk from Kyoto Station. This is the new TeamLab in Kyoto called Biovortex. Team Lab is an immersive art exhibition. This one in Kyoto is brand new and I think I like it better than the Tokyo ones. It’s the biggest team lab in Japan, across like three storeys. There [are] a few rooms that overlap with the Tokyo ones, but also heaps of new installations. It’s raining! Look how cute he is alright now we’re gonna go put it on the wall! Oh there he is! My favourite one is called the Massless Amorphous Sculpture. For this one, you can purchase a raincoat if you want, but we didn’t want to spend the money so we just got a face mask. This room is insane. It’s literally like you’re walking among the clouds. It’s made of some kind of foamy bubbles, and even if a piece comes off, they somehow join back together. This TeamLab is massive, and honestly I think we missed some of the rooms, even though we were there for like 3 hours. And when we went, it didn’t feel as crowded as the Tokyo ones, even though tickets were apparently sold out for the day. It’s still very new so maybe they were keeping numbers low while they sort out any kinks? But I hope they keep it as is, because it was very enjoyable. For those interested, you can book tickets for Teamlab Kyoto through Klook. And if you use my code SUNNYINJAPAN, you’ll get a cheeky little discount too! For our next place, we’re heading to Arashiyama. Arashiyama is on the western outskirts of Kyoto city, and this is where you’ll find the famous bamboo forest. Just past the main road, you’ll find some beautiful temples that flew under the radar for a long time. Let me introduce you to a moss temple called Gioji. Entrance is ¥300 and inside you’ll find a modest thatched roofed main hall, surrounded by the most stunning moss garden. It’s like something out of a fairy tale. Gioji Temple is about a 15 minute walk from the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. It’s located just off a gorgeous local Kyoto street, called the Saga Toriimoto Preserved Street. As the name suggests, if you keep walking up it, you’ll see some lovely traditional houses, as well as a couple of other cool temples. Adashino Nembutsuji temple is a very very old temple founded around 1,200 years ago. It served as a burial and memorial site, with 8,000 stone graves, representing people that died alone. I think it’s so cool that something like this exists to remember people that might have otherwise been forgotten, but I have to admit, it does feel a little bit weird to call this a sightseeing location, because it has such a solemn atmosphere. Well, not all of it… But I guess that’s also what makes it so special. At the back of the grounds, you’ll find a mini bamboo forest, leading up to another cemetery. If you visit, please be sure to respect any no photography signs around the gravesites. If you continue walking for another 10 minutes past Adashino Nenbutsuji, you’ll find probably one of the coolest and most unique temples in Kyoto. This is Otagi Nembutsuji temple, and it’s got an awesome story. Around 70 years ago, a Buddhist statue sculptor called Kocho Nishimura decided to restore Otagi Temple. With the help of people that had made a pilgrimage to the temple to learn Buddhist stone carving, they created over 1,000 stone followers of Buddha, called Rakan. It’s a gorgeous fusion of religion and self expression. Some statues are deep in prayer, while others are singing, playing musical instruments or holding cats. Arashiyama is stunning in any season. My personal favourite is autumn, when the leaves start changing colour. We filmed these temples in October, so you can see some of the trees have started changing. But to see a scene like this, that’s normally in November or early December, depending on the weather. Your best resource is going to be the Japan Meteorological Corporations or if you can’t say that like me, the JMC. They have these forecast maps that look like this: These get updated about a month or so ahead of the upcoming seasons, for spring and autumn, and the easiest way to find these is to just type something like “Red Foliage Forecast Japan 2025” in Google, and then just make sure that the resource is from the JMC, because there’s some dodgy ones out there. But I’ll chuck a link to a Japanese website down below that’s pretty good, for anyone that’s interested. If you wanna eat some ramen, you’re probably wondering where to go. There’s so many ramen stores in Japan and in my opinion, you’re gonna have a hard time finding a bad one. But when it comes to Kyoto specifically, the most popular place is said to be this Michelin recommended one called Menya Inoichi. But it is quite a long wait… We got there at 5:15pm, 15 minutes before it opened, and told that it would be a two and a half hour wait… which is fun… Luckily they recently opened a new branch in Uji, with no wait time! (For now) Their main branch is in central Kyoto, or like, the downtown area. Uji is a little bit south of Kyoto City, about 20 minutes from Kyoto Station by train, past Fushimi Inari. It’s actually a very well known place because it’s considered the green tea capital of the country! If you’ve had green tea, matcha specifically, chances are it’s come from Uji! This place is worth a day trip in my opinion. And now, while you’re exploring the town, visiting the temples and shrines and eating all kinds of matcha snacks, you can also have a Michelin recommended ramen! Menya Inoichi specialises in soy sauce based ramen. They have two types of soups to choose from: a white or a black soy sauce broth. We got one of each, one with pork char siu and the other one with beef. Both soups are great, but personally I prefer the light broth. Especially when you add the yuzu zest. The ramen here is pretty much the same as the main branch, but this one has a few exclusive items too, including this Wagyu beef don. Also the shumai here… so good. If you’re feeling adventurous, try adding this ‘tororo kombu’. It’s kind of like thinly sliced dried seaweed, but when you add it to the soup, it dissolves into this interesting texture. But after you get over the appearance, it’s pretty good! What’s unique about this place is that the soup is actually not made using any animal products! You can obviously add meat toppings like we did, but the soup itself gets its umami flavor from fish! This is kind of what makes it such a light flavour, that goes so well with zesty yuzu. If you want to spend a whole day with us in Uji, exploring the town and eating all kinds of wacky matcha flavored things, check out the video in the top right hand corner, or in the description below. If you’re looking for a unique dining experience, just one stop from Kyoto Station, you’ll find the Future Train Kyoto Diner and Cafe. This place is built on an abandoned train railway line in a Thunderbird train, one of the old express trains. And they’ve made it like this super retro yet futuristic vibe. It’s really really cool! As you can see, everything’s bright colours! This train’s all pink and blue! It’s fantastic! We’ve got such a good spot. This place is cashless, and you order through the QR code on the table. We ordered the future ekiben box. An ekiben is what you call the bento boxes that you can buy at train stations before you hop on the bullet train, so this was very on theme. And then I felt like absolute royalty when the burger arrived. This is the signature dish: the Ume Mirai burger. It was like a pile of sukiyaki in a burger! It was actually really tasty, just really messy to eat. The only thing I was missing was some tomato sauce for my chippies. K loves a parfait, so we also got the kawaii 5 story pagoda parfait, which was very extra. I don’t know where to eat it from. It’s like strawberry white chocolate and then inside, cookie. He rated it a 7/10 because according to him, a parfait has to contain cornflakes. This place is open for lunch and dinner, and while they do recommend booking ahead, you might be able to walk in for a lunch on a weekday, but I’m not guaranteeing anything. This pink carriage that we were in is called car 2. There’s a few different carriages, each one is unique. We went for the pre opening, so only cars 2 and 3 were open at the time. But there’s now also an art experience space, and a terrace to check out! I’m super curious about what the grand opening is gonna look like. The front carriage and the back carriage, and like the whole experience. So if anyone comes, let us know down in the comments how it was. Also, did you notice the name of the platform? It’s going to the future! There were so many small details like this around the restaurant. It was like a hit of dopamine every time we noticed one. And just outside the restaurant, see if you can find this adorable Pokemon manhole! This is like 2nd or 3rd generation! Okay, this one is a little bit further out, but if you’re looking for a day trip from Kyoto, a 2 hour train ride from Kyoto Station will get you to this very unique place. This is Amanohashidate, a sandbar that runs across the whole of Miyazu Bay, that translates to “the bridge to heaven”. It’s ranked among the three most scenic places in Japan, and the views from up here at the ViewLand are priceless. Stand with your back in the direction of Amanohashidate view, bend over and look at the view from between your legs. The sea looks like the sky. Oh, so it’s supposed to look like a dragon! Do you see a dragon? I don’t know… The best place to view Amanohashidate is from Viewland, located just behind Amanohashidate Station. There’s a cute little ropeway that will take you up to the summit. There’s a lot of things you can do up here, including rides, a cafe, and if you want to be humbled, you can try pottery throwing. From long ago, it has been believed that by successfully throwing a kawarake through the Chie-no-wa, one’s wish to avoid evil and calamity will be granted. Try your luck at Kawarake-nage to share in the blessings of wisdom and Protection from disaster. Let’s do it That was amazing! After you come down from Viewland, you can rent a bicycle and ride along the sandbar, for a fun little adventure. It’s only like 25 meters in width at some points, so as you’re riding along it, on one side you’ll see the bay, and then on the other side it’s a beach! The sky is so blue! For bonus points, you can grab a crab bento from near the station, and have a little picnic on the beach. This area is actually famous for its crab! There’s enough things to do around here to fill up your day, including visiting a local temple, and trying the local mochi which is said to make you more intelligent. If you wanna know more, we spent a couple of days exploring this area, and you can check out that video through the top right hand corner, or a link will be in the description below. Kyoto has so much more to offer outside of the usual tourist spots, and I hope this has given you some ideas for some cool new spots to add to your next Kyoto trip. If you found this video useful, give it a like and consider subscribing, to see more of this kind of content. Thanks for watching and see you in the next one!

Kyoto has become a very popular tourist destination in Japan, and with good reason! 🇯🇵
But outside of the well-known locations, there are still so many beautiful and unique things to do and eat in Kyoto that remain undiscovered.
So here is a list of places that we recently visited in Kyoto and really enjoyed that deserve more hype!

*Chapters:*
0:00 – 1. TeamLab Kyoto Biovortex
2:22 – 2. Gioji Temple in Arashiyama
3:40 – (BONUS) Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple
4:39 – (BONUS) Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple
6:26 – 3. The most popular ramen in Kyoto (menya inoichi #3)
8:31 – 4. FUTURE TRAIN KYOTO
11:14 – 5. Amanohashidate (day trip)

TeamLab Kyoto Biovortex on KLOOK: https://www.klook.com/activity/167098-teamlab-kyoto/
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🍁 Japanese Resource for autumn leaves forecast: ps://s.n-kishou.co.jp/w/sp/koyo/koyo_top

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