This trip has been planned since 4 months back; it will be a weekend trip and is actually the final weekend I will be here before returning back to Singapore. Fortunately, autumn will be coming sooner to Japan as compared to last year, so more than 50% of the destinations will already have autumn colours in place.
Since I know the map of Kyoto pretty well, it just took me an evening to map down the main sights to visit. Please refer to the map below.
The sights are numbered and they are as below.
1) Kyoto Station rendezvous
2) Kiyomizudera (清水寺)
3) Heian shrine (平安神宮)
4) Nanzenji (南禅寺)
5) Chionin (知恩院)
6) Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社)
7) Gion (祇園)
8) Pontocho (先斗町)
9) Watami Dinner (和民食事)
10) K’s House Kyoto
From Kyoto station to Kiyomizudera, we will be taking a bus there. Likewise from Kiyomizudera to Heian shrine, we will be taking another bus. For the rest of the stops, we will be walking to them. I have actually visited all the places before except for Nanzenji.
1) Kyoto Station rendezvous
Howard and I left our accommodation at 6.30am in the morning and begin our 4.5 hours bus ride to Kyoto. There is a short 20mins transit in between and as expected, the bus was late by 20mins due to traffic congestion in Kyoto city. We met up with Chok and Kok Wee at Kyoto Station at 11am.
From there is a 10mins bus ride to Kiyomizudera.
2) Kiyomizudera (清水寺)
This temple is famous for its autumn leaves and is crowded most of the time. Here is the viewing platform from the temple.
Our group of 4 gang. Starting from left we have Howard, Chok, Kok Wee and me. Chok and Kok Wee are currently staying in Osaka.
Walking down from the temple platform to the garden below, I caught a beautiful backdrop of autumn leaves against the greens.
A quiet pond in the middle of the temple garden.
From another perspective.
The weather is great on this day with the sun high up in the sky. Here is Kiyomizudera pagoda against the blue sky and autumn leaves.
A close up view of the red maple leaves against Chinese yellow pines.
We took a break for lunch at the old street just next to Kiyomizudera.
3) Heian Shrine (平安神宮)
After lunch, we took a bus to Heian shrine. On the way there, we came upon these beautiful rows of autumn trees along the street.
Here is the park directly in front of shrine. It is indeed a fabulous day and many people are having picnic with kids running around.
The shrine buildings are a partial replica of the imperial palace during the Heian period.
The architecture looks Chinese.
4) Nanzenji (南禅寺)
After the shrine visit, we proceeded by foot to our next stop, Nanzenji. Along the way, we came upon an eye-catching park with autumn leaves. Here is one with yellow leaves.
With me in the photo.
The sun shines upon the yellow and orange leaves, creating a beautiful contrast.
Taking a look from another angle.
The walk from Heian shrine to Nanzenji is around 20mins but it passes by some beautiful parks and waterways. Here is a gentle stream flowing through. It is just next to the zoo.
A fountain.
At last, we arrived at Nanzenji. This is the first time coming to this temple. I remembered last year during ‘Kyoto 4’, I walked past it around 5pm and was quite impressed by the autumn leaves from the outside. As it was late, I did not go in. This time round I have a chance to explore it. Check out the orange and red leaves below.
The deep red maple leaves.
A typical moss covered zen garden with autumn leaves as the background.
The bell swing in the wind against the backdrop of yellow and red leaves.
There is something fascinating about Nanzenji; in that there is a water aqueduct in there. It is said the water flows all the way down to the stream we saw earlier.
The red leaves against the main temple hall.
5) Chionin (知恩院)
6) Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社)
7) Gion (祇園)
8) Pontocho (先斗町)
9) Watami Dinner (和民食事)
After Nanzenji, it is almost 5pm and we proceeded on to Chionin. It was closed when we arrived but the rest of the guys managed to snap some night shots of the temple. Yasaka shrine, Gion and Pontocho are some of the places which comes alive at night. As I have captured photos of these places in my Kyoto 1 and Kyoto 4 updates, I will not upload any related photos.
We went to my favourite dinner hangout at Watami at 6.30pm. This is the 4th time coming here. We ordered quite a lot and one person on average is 1,800Yen.
10) K’s House Kyoto
After dinner, we took at 20mins walk back. We parted our ways (with Chok and Kok Wee) at Shichijo street. Howard and I will be staying at this international hostel – K’s House Kyoto. I started making reservations 3 weeks before and was surprised to find all double private rooms fully booked in 10 of the ryokans. Thankfully K’s House Kyoto still have dorm beds at 2,500Yen.
I read lots of pleasant comments about it and it is indeed new and clean. The staffs are friendly and we got to our rooms quickly. Let’s take a peek into the room below.
There are two other people staying in the dorm. One of them is a girl from Nagoya and another is a university student from Taiwan. I chatted briefly with them. The Taiwanese student is visiting Kyoto by himself and will be staying here for a week. He has a whole range of plans on where to visit and we discussed on the sights. By around 10.30pm, we are off on our bed and call it a day.
