How I Planned My Trip to Japan 2 - Kyoto

I Travelled In Japan Without Speaking Japanese, Here's How

Happy Chinese New Year to those who are celebrating the lunar new year!

It’s been more than two weeks since I described to you my trip to Tokyo and I promised to write about Kyoto, so here it comes! 

Kyoto is an ancient prefecture of Japan. It has a large number of temples characterised by their vivid red paint and picturesque views. My family and I had spent fewer number of days in Kyoto compared to Tokyo, not for any particular reason, simply due to restriction of time. It was a three-day-three-night adventure filled with many temple visits, walking and … well you won’t want to know what comes after the ‘and’. Hint: it’s not pleasant.

Apps to download for use in Kyoto:

1) Kyoto simple bus search

2) maps.me

3) way to go (picture translator)

Since I ended on Day 5 in the previous post (click here to read my journey in Tokyo!) I will start from Day 6 below.

Day 6 

In the morning of the 6^th day in Japan, we boarded the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. Along the road, if you ask for the correct seats i.e. D & E (here’s your First Tip!) you will be able to spot the magnificent Mount Fuji on your right. Get ready your cameras and phones if you did not manage to take a trip down there while you were in Tokyo. As for those who are heading from Kyoto to Tokyo, the same seats will give you the equal advantage of spotting the beautiful mountain.

Second Tip: There are three types of bullet trains on the Shinkansen line, i.e. the fastest but most expensive Nozomi, the slightly slower but cheaper Hikari and the slowest but cheapest Kodoma. Be sure to ask for the right train (and the right seats!) because normally the sale attendants assume by default that you are buying the Nozomi when you ask for the Shinkansen trains. We chose Hikari because not only it is cheaper, it does not require any extra charges for reservation of seats unlike the Nozomi.

This is a Nozomi (not our train) and my sleepy brother.

Here is a link to the timetable of Shinkansen trains. All trains are labelled, with N being Nozomi, H being Hikari and you know what K stands for! It is advisable that you find out ahead which time you want before approaching the sale attendants (they will still serve you with the utmost patience ever even if you’re not).

There are many other ways to get to Kyoto as well if you are on a tight budget. A popular choice is by overnight buses (p.s. it also saves you a night of hotel fees) which is much cheaper in comparison to the faster bullet trains. If you plan on buying the JR Rail Pass, then you can use it to board any Shinkansen trains except the Nozomi. I could go on and compare the price differences and pros and cons of each alternative for you but this will make this post unnecessarily lengthy so I suggest you to take a look at Tokyocheapo to get a thorough overview.

Upon arrival in Kyoto, we dropped our bags in a modern Airbnb room before dashing out to the golden temple: Kinkaku-ji. It stops admitting tourists at 4.30pm (the winter problem) so we were lucky enough to be there on the dot. There is an admission fee of ¥400 for adults and ¥300 for children but this is not a place that you would want to miss. The way the golden temple was reflected in the lake embellished by the colourful clouds is probably the most breathtaking scene that I will ever get from looking at temples.

This picture does it no justice.

At night, we took a bus back to the Kyoto station to take a look at the Kyoto Tower before heading back to our Airbnb room.

Kyoto Tower at night

Third tip: The City Bus is the most common transportation to travel around in Kyoto. You can (and should) grab the ¥500 daily bus pass. It lets you ride unlimitedly on the City Bus in a day and is a huge cost saver. Without it, you will need to pay ¥230 every time you get off the bus so if your plan involves more than three bus rides a day, this pass is totally worth it. Here is where you use your Kyoto bus search app to look for the right bus to board! I don’t recommend getting the reloadable cards here in Kyoto (e.g. Icoca card) because not only you won’t get to use it much if you stay near the city, you will have to pay a ¥220 fee upon cancellation of the card when you go back home. If you have the Pasmo/Suica cards from Tokyo, they are usable here but not refundable in the area as they belong to another train company that does not operate here. 

Note: Kyoto is very advanced in tourism, they have clear signs of direction for the attractions and if you’re really unsure, ask the bus drivers if they are heading to where you want to. Make sure not to stall too much because everyone on the bus is rushing to somewhere (and apologise if you have to!).

Follow

Day 7 

We started day 7 at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. If you have been an avid (or not necessarily) YouTube + Instagram fan, you would have seen a picture of the shrine somewhere.

A typical tourist pose! I apologise for my awkward posture.

We then followed up with a walk in the Sanjusensangendo Temple (¥600 admission fee for adults and ¥ 300 for children). We were not allowed to take pictures in the temple so we got to really enjoy the temple by looking at some extremely well-crafted statues. Here’s a photo of the outside of the temple…

…and me.

The exposure is too high!

Before we dived into the shopping streets of Gion (and never turned back), we squeezed in another temple visit to the Kiyomisu-dera. This time however, we did not enter the temple (¥300 for adults, ¥200 for children aged 7-15 and free for children of age 6 and under). It is one of the most popular temples in all of Japan and is recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1994. Because we already did three temple visits, we thought we would skip this and take the day off earlier (to go shopping)!

The outer part of the Kiyomisu-dera

Fourth tip: Again, visitacity.com provides excellent customise/standard plan for you to explore Kyoto. Do check it out and FYI they have an app that is easy to navigate as well!

Fifth tip: If you stay around Kyoto Station, to get to Fushimi Inari Shrine faster, you will need a train ticket. It costs ¥170 and, just offering my two cents, I think it’s more convenient to purchase the ticket only when you need it (imagine the refund process for the reloadable cards and all the panicky feeling it causes when you are at the airport). For us, we only took the train two times for our three-day trip in Kyoto, most other times we walked or rode the City Bus.

Follow

Day 8

It is CUSTOMARY for tourists visiting Kyoto to go to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. No matter how you do it, you MUST fit this into your schedule because it’s simply too mesmerising for you to miss it.

Before we struck a pose in the infamous bamboo forest, we stepped into Tenryu-ji to breathe in some fresh air of the head temple. It is the top ranked of the Five Great Zen Temples of Kyoto and is a UNESCO World Heritage site as well!

Here’s a sneak peek of the temple. Bear in mind that Mother nature’s surprise does not stop there.

There is, however, an entrance fee to pay to enter the temple. It costs ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for children.

Here comes the best part in Kyoto and the place I love the most, the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Just to let you know, I am very much of a city girl and have since young disliked anything that comes with soil and grass *shivers* but this bamboo forest is one exception. Not only the air smelled clean and fresh, the bamboos clustering around me gave me a sense of security I never felt being in a forest.  

Look how pretty it is!

Sixth tip: If you like monkeys, take your time to visit the Arashiyama Monkey Park. It showcases a different species of monkeys you would not find elsewhere!

We ended our journey after these two destinations to head to the Gion district again. Here we had our first Taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake with red bean/sweet potato paste in it. This is a must try in Japan and the one we found in Gion district was absolutely delicious. We highly recommend the sweet potato Taiyaki! I am unable to produce any picture of them because they were gobbled down too quickly before my camera was even taken out of its case. They were just too good! 

p.s. When we were ordering, we simply pointed at the Taiyaki without knowing what we were buying. The selling boards were all written in Japanese! But they were all yummy so no harm done, haha!

Seventh tip: For your best enjoyment of the Taiyaki, wait for a few minutes before you take your first bite. This is to let it cool down a little first so that it doesn’t burn your lips/tongue and destroy its taste. Not so much of a travelling tip but a food tip, I guarantee the usefulness of this one! 

If you plan on getting some souvenirs for your friends or relatives, I recommend the pharmacies lining inner streets of Gion. They offer a wide range of selections (MASKS!!!) with reasonable prices. As a sheet masks lover, I highly recommend the LuLuLun Face Masks! These masks are very popular among tourists as well as the Japanese because they are great when you need a super quick pick-me-up. If I am not mistaken, I was also told that they do not contain any additives or fragrance, which is another thumbs-up for this cute masks! You can google 'LuLuLun' to find out more. If time permits, maybe one day I will do a full review of the masks on Yanrula. 

LuLuLun in all sizes and colours. Look at how cute the packagings are!

That ends our trip in Kyoto but not Japan. We will be moving on to Osaka on the next day before departing to Kuala Lumpur. 

So this is it! The Kyoto part of my Japan journey. I will be posting another Lush Mask review soon hopefully in the coming weeks so don't forget to tune in for more!

What did you think about the post? Have you been to Kyoto before? Did you like it? Share your experience with me in the comment below!

Thank you for reading, see you in the next post!

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave