Kyoto is FULL of great temples and culture, and we HAD to see as much as we could in our short time here. If you want jam as much as you can on your visit, here’s our itinerary:
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Video Transcript:
Hey guys welcome back to our channel! We’re Nick and Anna, digital nomads from the states who left and have been traveling full time, trying to see the whole world. If you enjoy our content, we’d love to have you as a subscriber.
This week, we’ll be taking you around to as many Shines in Kyoto as we could fit in one day. If you’re only in Kyoto for a short time, you’re going to want to watch this video.
We last left off just arriving in Kyoto from Tokyo station, hopping into our cab.
The next day we started bright and early on our trip to see as many temples and shrines as we could in one day.
We started at Arashiyama, the bamboo forest. Some have said that stepping into this forest is like stepping into another world. It is one of the most beautiful & photographed places in Kyoto, despite only having one main path through the grove.
If you walk far enough into the grove, there is a small hidden temple here, which marked the first of many we were about to visit today.
From here we walked over to our first train station, which was equipped with the same card readers we used in Tokyo. We were able to use the same Suica cards we had used earlier in our trip which was really nice.
After exiting the train, we had a little bit of a walk to get to our next temple. The rain had started to pick up a little bit, but we weren’t bothered, it felt good to be outside.
This temple is famous for its dry landscape rock garden. The pictures and videos don’t do its justice. It’s one of the most iconic gardens in Japan, and the arrangement of rocks and sand is soul-stilling…even with the crowds of people here
There are 15 rocks in the garden, but only 14 can be seen at one time. It’s said that when you attain enlightenment you can see all 15 at once.
This was our first time at a conveyer belt sushi place, so you’ll have to forgive how entertained we were. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs. Each plate was around 100 yen, so we couldn’t go wrong.
Our next temple was the kinkaku Ji temple, or the golden pavilion. If you go a little earlier in the day, you can avoid the crowds and tourists here. This is a big spot for iconic photos and videos.
We were lucky enough to get some footage without people in it, and were taken aback by this temple’s beauty.
I know we’re taking quite a few trains and busses on our trip today, but honestly it was really easy getting around with our suica cards. I’ll link the itinerary in the description below for when you decide to go to Kyoto!
Next we went to one of the shrines we were most excited about. Nothing says welcome to Kyoto like walking through these iconic torri gates.
We didn’t walk all the way up the mountain, as we had other shrines to get to, but if you have 2 hours to spend here, you can do the 4km round trip hike up the mountain to see all of the gates.
The best season to come to this temple nestled in the trees would have to be autumn, as the leaves start to change. They have finally finished construction to restore this place so you can see it as it’s meant to look.
They have a few places you can make offerings and make wishes like good health, good marks on exams, and more.
While it was raining pretty regularly at this point, this temple can get extremely crowded on nicer days and busy season, so plan accordingly.
Down beneath the temple, there is a waterfall you can drink from for success, love, and longevity.
This 5 story pagoda can be seen from quite far, and was built in the year 700.
This shrine is designated for breaking off bad relationships and initiating good ones. You’d write your wishes on a piece of white paper, crawl through the hole and pin your paper to the stone.
If you’ve made it this far, hit that subscribe button why don’t ya? Until next time, see ya!
Chapters
0:00 – Intro
1:00 – Getting to our Airbnb
2:13 – Kyoto Airbnb Tour
4:35 – Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
5:10 – Hokoku-Ji Temple
5:53 – Randen Train Line
7:01 – Ryan-Ji Temple
9:06 – Lunch time at Kura
11:54 – Kinkaku-Ji Temple
13:13 – Fushimi Inarhi Tiasha
15:39 – Sanjyusangenndo Temple
17:12 – Kiyomizu Temple
19:23 – Yasaka Pagoda
19:38 – Yasui Konpiragu
20:21 – KFC