This post will cover the first part of our time in Kyoto, including our self-guided walking tour through eastern Kyoto. 

After our stopover in Narita, we were up early the next morning to meet our friends at the airport. After finding some breakfast in one of the terminals, we made our way to the Japan Rail office and exchanged our vouchers for JR Passes. We booked our seats on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, and headed off on our Japan adventure.

We arrived early in the afternoon after enjoying a few hours whizzing through the Japanese countryside and towns. Our AirBnB was an easy walk from the station, and accommodated our group easily. We would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a place to stay for a group of people in Kyoto. 

First Impressions of Kyoto

After settling in, we ventured out to explore Kyoto. Our first mission was to find the Pokemon Center. Lachlan wanted to visit as many Pokemon Centers as possible while we were in Japan. This was actually the second one we visited, as we had already visited the small Pokemon Center in Narita Airport. The Pokemon Center is in a large department store, so the members of our group who are not into Pokemon had other things to look at, checking out some of the weird and wonderful things you can find in a Japanese department store.

We were all starting to feel the effects of our recent long plane flights, so we grabbed some refreshments from a vending machine (always easy to find in Japan) and took a break sitting on the bank of the Kamo River in the late afternoon sunshine.

By now it was getting late enough in the day that we were starting to think about finding some dinner. We were all a bit jet-lagged, so decision-making wasn’t easy. We wandered down the very scenic Pontocho Alley in search of a place to eat.

We found a restaurant that had a variety of different types of food, thinking this would be an easy option for our first group dinner of the trip. Despite a few issues with the restaurant service (very unusual for Japan) we eventually managed to get something to eat. We then headed back to our AirBnB and slept very well.

Kyoto Imperial Palace

For our first full day of sightseeing, the plan was to check out the temples and shrines of eastern Kyoto. However, our first stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace. When we had previously visited Kyoto you could only see this place by reserving in advance. Now that you don’t need to make reservations our lack of advance planning skills didn’t keep us from seeing it like it had in previous visits.

Before entering the palace grounds we explored some of the outer gardens.

Once we had paid our entrance and made it into the palace proper, we saw some impressive buildings.

As well as the impressive scale of the palace buildings, the architectural details (featuring lots of gold) were impressive.

We were particularly impressed by the meticulously groomed gardens. The palace designers strategically positioned them outside the rooms of the highest ranking members of the imperial family and their staff.

Exploring Eastern Kyoto

After the Imperial Palace, we headed east to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. Shops selling souvenirs and various kinds of food line the road leading to the temple. A lot of the people we saw on the street were school students. Many school groups come to Kyoto to visit the significant and historical sites in the city.

The Silver Pavilion at Ginkaku-ji is not actually covered in silver, unlike the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji which it was modeled after. The initial plans to cover the pavilion with silver foil never happened.

For me, the gardens are the best thing about Ginkaku-ji. It’s a lovely walk through the moss and carefully groomed trees and shrubs.

We continued our eastern Kyoto journey with a visit to the Honen-in temple. This is much less visited than other temples, so was a nice respite after the very busy Ginkaku-ji. 

Honen-in is a place where you can sit and feel some peace and serenity, much more of a zen experience than the more famous and crowded temples in Kyoto. A Japanese tour group who came to check out the temple’s Buddha statue briefly interrupted our peace, but it wasn’t long until they were gone and serenity returned.

Philosopher’s Path

From Honen-in, we continued down the Philosopher’s Path (also known as the Path of Philosophy or Philosopher’s Walk). Although the name may sound like it has been passed down through the ages, the name comes from a 20th century Kyoto University philosophy professor who used it for his daily walk to contemplate and meditate.

As a break from historic sites, we stopped at a small do-it-yourself pottery shop on the path. The instructor very patiently guided members of our group through the process of making a small bowl on a potter’s wheel. Each craftsperson selected a glaze color for their bowl after shaping the clay. The store owner later fired the bowls and mailed them to us back home in Houston.

A little further down the Philosopher’s Path we came across an unexpected highlight of our day in eastern Kyoto. Intrigued by a sign featuring a couple of cute mice, we decided to check out Otoyo Shrine.

We found a small shrine complex with an interesting collection of guardian animals.

Nanzen-ji Temple

The final stop on our walk through eastern Kyoto was Nanzen-ji. This is a large Zen Buddhist temple complex with quite a few different things to see. After walking through the large entry gate, there is a large incense burner. The incense smoke is to purify visitors before they visit the temple.

Next to the incense burner is the Dharma Hall, with an impressive painting of a dragon on the ceiling.

Probably the most interesting thing at Nanzen-ji (perhaps even in eastern Kyoto) is the aqueduct. This was built in the Meiji period (late 1800s) as part of a plan to modernize the city’s water supply system. The plan was never fully implemented, leaving the Nanzen-ji aqueduct as a curious oddity.

You can climb steps behind the aqueduct and walk along the canal leading into the forest. We were lucky enough to see a grey heron resting peacefully next to the rushing water.

As the light was fading we had just enough time to visit the Nanzenin garden. This is a lush and peaceful zen garden built around a pond. A stroll around this peaceful place was a fitting end to our eastern Kyoto adventure.