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Kyoto

140 places

• Adashino Nenbutsu-ji On two evenings at the end of August they light a candle in front of every stone, and you enter in the dark.
• Amanohashidate When you look between your legs, sky and sea swap places: the view is called ‘flying dragon’.
• Amanohashidate Winery A red drawn two days after fermentation starts: it is sold only here.
• Amanoiwato-jinja You climb up to the main shrine holding on to a chain on the rock face.
• Arashiyama Bamboo Path (竹林の小径) The city keeps a live camera on it to show how crowded it is.
• Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama At the summit, at 160 metres, you can buy 100-yen bags to feed 120 free-roaming macaques.
• Asahiyaki A family kiln since the seventeenth century: on Tuesdays you can only go in if you have booked.
• Byodo-in The Phoenix Hall is on the 10-yen coin; the phoenix, on the 10,000 banknote.
• Chion-in The grounds open at 6:00 and are free: at that hour there is nobody in Higashiyama.
• Chion-ji The largest gate in Tango: three passageways, two storeys, sixteen disciples upstairs.
• Daikaku-ji Not prayer halls but rooms of the court, and you walk without shoes along the wooden corridors.
• Demachi Masugata shōtengai It is the end of the ‘mackerel road’: the fish arrived here on foot from the sea.
• Eikan-dō Zenrin-ji Since 1082 the statue of the Amida Buddha has not looked at the worshippers: its face is turned backwards.
• Entoku-in (圓徳院) Sub-temple of the Kōdai-ji. The north garden is a national monument.
• Fukuchiyama Castle Its walls contain over 500 stones stolen from temples: gravestones, statues, millstones.
• Fukujuen Uji Kōbō ¥2,200 and forty minutes to grind your own matcha: last admission at 15:00.
• Funaoka Onsen From 1923, the third public bath in Japan to be registered as an architectural heritage building.
• Fushimi Inari Shrine 4 km and two hours to the 233 m summit, under ten thousand gates. Always open, free.
• Gansen-ji The Amida has the date carved inside: 946, 2.4 m tall and cut from a single trunk.
• Gekkeikan Okura Museum (Fushimi) The final tasting lets you choose three sakes out of ten, and the cup is yours to keep.
• Ginkaku-ji The Silver Pavilion was never covered in silver: a 2007 analysis confirmed it.
• Giō-ji You can walk round the garden in under five minutes: it is moss, and nothing else.
• Gion and Hanamikoji-dori Since 2019 photography in the alleys has been banned; since 2024 the stated fine is 10,000 yen.
• Goryō-jinja Here Akechi Mitsuhide, the traitor of Honnō-ji, is the city's guardian deity.
• Hatchōhama A 68 by 105 metre lawn beside the beach, with the bus stop in front.
• Heian-jingu (Jidai Matsuri) Two thousand people and twelve thousand props, in a historical procession two kilometres long.
• Higashi Hongan-ji It opens at 5:50, and at that hour the great hall holds the service, not tourists.
• Hōkan-ji / Yasaka Pagoda 46 m tall: you can climb to the second floor and see the central pillar from inside.
• Hōsen-in The ticket includes tea: you sit on the tatami and stay as long as you like.
• Hozu River Bridge, Sagano Railway (保津川橋梁・トロッコ保津峡駅) Torokko Hozukyō Station is built right on the bridge, above the gorge.
• Hozugawa Kudari (descent of the Hozu River) Sixteen kilometres of rapids to Arashiyama, in about two hours, on boats without engines.
• Ine no Funaya 230 boathouse homes on the sea: the ground floor is for the boat, the floor above is for living.
• Iwashimizu Hachimangu Rebuilt in 1634, it is the largest hachiman-zukuri shrine still standing.
• Izumo-Daijingū The Manai wells up behind the main building: you come here with empty bottles.
• Japanese Oni Museum Outside the museum there is a five-metre demon roof tile that weighs ten tonnes.
• Jikkō-in Its cherry tree blooms from the time of the red maples until spring: blossoms and leaves together.
• Joruri-ji In the eleventh century thirty halls with nine statues of Amida were built here: this is the only one left.
• Kamaihama On the hill, a house built inside a tree sixteen metres tall, with an internal staircase.
• Kameoka Fog Terrace Check the municipality's webcam first: without fog, at dawn, there is nothing.
• Kamigamo-jinja It opens at 5:30, before anything else in Kyoto, and costs nothing.
• Kamishichiken In summer the courtyard of the dance school becomes a beer garden served by maiko.
• Kamogawa Delta (Daimonji) On 16 August five mountains light up one every five minutes: from here you can see the first.
• Kanabiki Falls A forty-metre drop, the only waterfall in Kyoto Prefecture among Japan's hundred.
• Katsura Rikyu Visits only by booking, on a one-hour guided tour: you do not walk around on your own.
• Keage Incline A National Treasure since 2025: it is the first modern civil engineering work to become one.
• Keihan Uji Line Railway Bridge over the Yamashina River (京阪宇治線 山科川橋梁) The first railway bridge you come to after leaving Rokujizō Station on the Keihan Uji Line in the direction of Uji: this is where the line…
• Kennin-ji On the ceiling of the Dharma hall, twin dragons painted in 2002 across 108 tatami.
• Kifune-jinja The oracle slip is bought blank: the words appear when you dip it in the spring-water basin.
• Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) A novice monk burned it down in 1950: today's gold is from 1987, 200,000 leaves and twenty kilos.
• Kinse Ryokan (きんせ旅館) Former ageya from the late Edo period in the Shimabara district, now a café and bar. Of note are the Art Nouveau stained-glass windows with…
• Kisaichi Maruyama Tumulus The largest burial mound in northern Kyoto Prefecture: 81 metres in diameter, and you can walk on it.
• Kitano Tenman-gū About one thousand five hundred plum trees in bloom in February, when the cherry trees have nothing to show.
• Kitasui Tunnel (北吸トンネル) Red-brick tunnel from 1904, built for the Maizuru arsenal railway and now a footpath and cycle path, a Registered Tangible Cultural…
• Kiyamachi-dori In 1611 a canal brought timber from Osaka: a hundred boats travelled up it every day.
• Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) 235 people really did jump from the stage between 1694 and 1864: 85.4% of them survived.
• Kōdai-ji In the evening moving images are projected onto the dry landscape garden: last entry 21:30.
• Kōryū-ji The wooden Miroku bears the number 1 on the list of Japan's National Treasures.
• Kōshō-ji Founded in 1233, and people still meditate there: it opens at 10:00 and closes at 16:00.
• Kotohikihama, the singing beach The sand goes ‘ku ku’ underfoot, and a 2001 regulation bans smoking on it.
• Kōzan-ji It keeps the frog and rabbit scrolls, which in Japan are called the ancestor of manga.
• Kuahouse Iwataki The hot-spring bath alone costs ¥550; the rest is a municipal pool, sauna and weights room.
• Kurama Onsen Its iron-rich outdoor bath looks straight out over the wooded valley of Kurama.
• Kyogamisaki Lighthouse The northernmost point of Kyoto: its French lens is identical to that of only 4 other lighthouses.
• Kyoto Aquarium The giant salamanders grow to a metre and a half, and you cannot see them anywhere else in the city.
• Kyoto Imperial Palace Entry is free and needs no booking: guided tours in English start at 10:00 and 14:00.
• Kyoto International Conference Center The Kyoto Protocol was signed here in 1997: you can visit only on special days.
• Kyoto International Manga Museum 300,000 manga in a former school from 1929: 50,000 can be read anywhere, even sitting on the floor.
• Kyoto Kyocera Museum of Art The building, from 1933, is the oldest public art museum still in its original premises.
• Kyoto National Museum Between one exhibition and the next only the gardens stay open, and the ticket drops to ¥300.
• Kyoto Railway Museum (京都鉄道博物館) The fan-shaped roundhouse is not a museum piece: the turntable still turns.
• Kyoto Seibo Jogakuin Main Building (京都聖母女学院本館) Brick building from 1908 in Fukakusa, Fushimi: originally the headquarters of the Imperial Army's 16th Division, now school premises, a…
• Kyoto Station (京都駅) Inside the station a staircase of 171 steps climbs 35 metres to an open roof.
• Kyoto Tower The white tower above the station, Kyoto's most recognisable silhouette.
• Kyoto Wazukasō ¥3,500 for lunch, booked three days ahead and never for fewer than four people.
• Little Indigo Museum A house from 1796, ¥300: it closes three days out of seven and for the whole winter.
• Maizuru Red Brick Park (舞鶴赤れんがパーク) Complex of Imperial Navy brick warehouses from 1902–1903, which are Important Cultural Properties. The municipality of Maizuru publishes an…
• Manpuku-ji Founded in 1661 by a Chinese monk: it follows Ming models, not Japanese ones.
• Manshu-in Living quarters with painted walls, opening onto a garden of raked gravel.
• Mantōroyama Viewpoint Three hundred metres up, and you can drive right to the top: fireworks and bonfires are banned.
• Miyama Kayabuki no Sato 39 of the 50 houses still have thatched roofs, some built more than 200 years ago.
• Miyazu Catholic Church, 聖ヨハネ天主堂 There are no pews in the nave: the floor is made of mats, and you sit on the floor.
• Motoise Kono-jinja On the roof, the spheres of the five colours, allowed only here and at Ise.
• Mukō-jinja The main building dates from 1422 and is a national Important Cultural Property.
• Murin-an Entry is limited, with a booked time slot: that is why there are no crowds.
• Myoman-ji (妙満寺) Head temple of the Kenpon Hokke school, of the Nichiren branch, founded in Kyoto in 1389 by Nichijū Shōnin. The Ōnin War and other fires…
• Nagare-bashi 356 metres of wood with no railings: when the river floods, the deck comes away and goes downstream.
• Nijo Castle (二条城) In 1867 power returned to the emperor in this hall; the floor sings with every step.
• Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka (二年坂・三年坂) Whoever falls here dies within three years, the saying goes: people used to climb it carrying a lucky gourd.
• Ninna-ji The Omuro-zakura are two metres tall: the flowers stay at eye level.
• Nintendo Museum You do not buy a ticket: you win one in a draw, and only those who are drawn know the price.
• Nishi Hongan-ji Every day the monks lead a free tour, and there is no booking.
• Nishijin Textile Center Every hour, for free, a show of kimono woven in the district that gives the technique its name.
• Nishiki Market 390 metres, 130 shops: as early as 1615 the shogunate gave it the monopoly on fresh fish.
• Ōmiya Site — ambush on Sakamoto Ryōma (近江屋跡) Memorial stele on Kawaramachi-dōri, at the spot where the Ōmiya shop stood and where Sakamoto Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō were attacked.…
• Philosopher's Path About 400 cherry trees along the canal: in early April the fallen petals cover the water.
• Pontocho 500 metres between two rivers: the name comes, they say, from the ‘pon’ of a drum struck between them.
• Prefectural Botanical Garden About ten thousand species on twenty-four hectares, greenhouse included, for five hundred yen.
• Rakunan High School (洛南高等学校) A historic basketball powerhouse of Kyoto.
• Repatriation Memorial Museum 570 documents from those who came back from Siberia, inscribed by UNESCO on 10 October 2015.
• Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto RIHGA Royal Hotel Kyoto is a hotel in Shimogyō Ward, Kyoto (松明町1番地), about 7 minutes on foot from Kyoto Station. It has the buffet…
• Rokkaku-dō The rules of ikebana, the art of flowers, were born here: the school is still next door.
• Ryoan-ji In the stone garden, from any point, one of the fifteen always stays hidden.
• Sagurijinja Above the side panels, squirrels among bunches of grapes, carved in the fifteenth century.
• Saiho-ji (Kokedera) Before the moss garden you copy a sutra: you go in only once you have done it.
• Saimyō-ji The only one of the three Takao temples without a flight of steps: five minutes from the bus stop.
• SAMURAI NINJA MUSEUM KYOTO with EXPERIENCE In the basic package you throw shuriken and blow through a blowpipe; open 9:30–19:30.
• Sanjō-kai shōtengai More than 150 shops under a single roof: this is where you do the grocery shopping, not the souvenir shopping.
• Sanjusangen-do There are exactly 1,001 statues of Kannon: 1,000 standing plus one seated in the centre.
• Shimabara The Sumiya is the only *ageya* left in Japan: the house for banquets, not for living in.
• Shimogamo-jinja and Tadasu no Mori It opens at 6:30, free of charge, and before the shrine there is a whole forest to walk through.
• Shinnyo-dō In November you pay twice: ¥500 for the garden, another ¥500 to enter the halls.
• Shisen-dō It closes only one day a year, 23 May: the anniversary of the man who built it for himself.
• Shojoke-in (清浄華院) One of the eight great head temples of the Jōdo school and one of the four honzan of Kyoto; to everyone it is simply the Jōkein. It is the…
• Shōkadō Garden and Museum The garden can be visited, the hermitage cannot: closed for works, with no reopening date.
• Shōtenkyō and Kazuranohama Beach Sixteen metres above the sea, and from there you have the sea on one side and the lagoon on the other.
• Shugakuin Rikyū Free, but you book: three kilometres uphill, eighty minutes, 18 and over only.
• Shūon-an Ikkyū-ji Adults ¥600: the ¥500 going around is the rate for groups of thirty people.
• Singing Sand Museum Here the sand sings even in damp weather: outside, on the beach, it is silent. ¥290.
• Takao (area) and the *kawadoko* You eat on platforms built over the stream, from 1 April to the end of November.
• Takashima You see the islets of Tango Matsushima from in the water, not from a viewpoint.
• Take-no-michi Eighteen hundred metres between bamboo fences woven by hand in eight designs.
• Tanshū Kannon-ji A hundred varieties of hydrangea, ten thousand plants: they bloom from June to the end of July.
• Tanukidanisan Fudoin (狸谷山不動院) Shingon temple in the shugendō tradition, known to everyone as ‘the O-Fudō-san of Tanukidani’, at Ichijōji Matsubara-chō in the Sakyō…
• Tateiwa 20 metres high: legend says a prince sealed a defeated demon inside it.
• Tenryu-ji The garden uses Mount Arashiyama as a borrowed backdrop, with no walls to separate them.
• Teramachi and Shinkyogoku In 1590 Hideyoshi gathered the temples here: today it is an arcade of shops, no longer of faith.
• Toei Uzumasa Eigamura (東映太秦映画村) It is a working film set: you can see a crew filming in Edo costume.
• Tōfuku-ji From 14 November the bridge opens at 8:30 and the ticket rises from ¥600 to ¥1,000.
• Togo-tei — former residence of the Maizuru naval commander (東郷邸) House from 1901 built for Tōgō Heihachirō, first commander of the Maizuru naval district; today a meeting hall of the Maritime Self-Defense…
• Toji Its five-storey pagoda, 54.8 metres tall, is the tallest wooden tower in Japan.
• Tōno sekibutsu and the smiling Buddha The ‘laughing Buddha’ has its date, 1299, carved on a boulder by the roadside.
• Tsuen (Uji tea house) Opened in 1160 next to Uji Bridge: Hideyoshi and Ieyasu stopped here too.
• Uji Botanical Park It opens at 9:00 and closes at 17:00, but last entry is at 16:00.
• Ujigami-jinja Its shrine, from the eleventh century, is the oldest Shinto building in Japan.
• Ukawa Onsen Yoshino no Sato Two bath halls, one by the sea and one in the bamboo: they swap on alternate days.
• Wazukacha Cafe The hire bikes are all electric, ¥2,500 a day, and there are none for children.
• Yasaka-jinja (Gion Matsuri) Its July festival has been on the UNESCO heritage list since 2009 and lasts a month, not a day.
• Yūhigaura, the sunset beach On the sand, a wooden swing five metres tall, put there for the backlighting.
• Yuki-jinja (Kurama Fire Festival) On 22 October, hundreds of torches pass through the village from six in the evening into the night.
• Yunohana Onsen Its waters were born, legend has it, from the tears of a defeated demon.

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