You don’t have to travel far from Kyoto to find yourself surrounded by nature. Just in the nearby mountains at the edge of the city, there are plenty of possibilities to go for a walk or a proper hike. In addition to enjoying the beauty of green forest-covered mountains and rushing, crystal clear streams in the narrow valleys between them, there are also many temples worth to visit. While some of them might be hidden in the deep forest and require a bit of a climb to get there, there are also more accessible ones, with small towns developed around them. Kibune is one of such gems. It is located on the northern side of Kyoto and can be easily reached by a small idyllic train. The train journey starts from Demachiyanagi Station and after half an hour of enjoying the passing by scenery of peaceful Kyoto and later forests, you will reach Kibuneguchi Station. From there it is a six minutes bus ride or a half an hour walk along a tunnel made of trees, with a mountain stream on one side. Needless to say, that my recommendation is the walk although you will have to share the road with cars.
Even though I would say that the main attraction of Kibune is the natural beauty of the area itself, the most visited place is probably Kifune Jinja. It is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the God of water and rain. The place is well known for its fortune-telling (omikuji) on a special paper which reveals its text only when immersed in water. In addition to visiting the shrine and enjoying the nature, during the summer time it is possible to have a meal on the platforms (kawadoko) build above the river just one meter from the water level, which is said to help escape the summer heat. It was late spring when we visited Kibune but still a bit too early for eating outside in such places. The weather was very nice, not hot as during the summer at all, with the trees still having very rich green foliage not burnt by the sun. It is hard to think any better power spot to relax and recharge oneself!
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