Made an impromptu trip to Kyoto with no expectation, but it turned out to be an enriching cultural experience. As we booked our Airbnb in a quiet neighbourhood, therefore long journey by bus to various destination is expected, I brought a novel to accompany me - The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata. A highly recommended book if you are travelling to Kyoto! It gave me a deeper appreciation of the customs and traditions in Kyoto. At times, I read this book under a quiet cherry blossom tree, how beautiful is that!

Does Kyoto have an airport?

The closest airport to Kyoto for international travellers is Kansai International Airport, approximately 95km from Kyoto. The fastest option will be to board the Limited Express Haruka which gets you to Kyoto in about 75 minutes. Please do not repeat our mistake of buying the train ticket from the machine as the ticket produced was for the Kansai Airport Rapid. While it ultimately got us to Kyoto, the train made quite a number of stops and we also had to make a transit at Osaka station. So, you can try purchasing the Limited Express Haruka ticket from the counter.

Does Kyoto have Uber?

Nope. However, it is very easy to explore Kyoto by public transport. They have a very good train, subway and bus connection, but please do find out the last departure when you plan your itinerary. The other popular option would be to explore the city by bicycle. Kyoto do not have a dedicated bicycle lane, so you have to be very careful when cycling on the pedestrian walkway.

Is Kyoto expensive?

Kyoto is more expensive that Osaka. To be prudent, do budget about 4,000yen for meals per day unless you are fine with takeaways from the convenient store. Most buses have fixed fare and it cost 230yen, regardless of the distance. Therefore, for short distance travel, getting on a subway or train would be advisable, with a one way trip costing approximately between 130 - 200yen. Google map does a fantastic job calculating the cost during your search, so use it to plan your travel. Please also ensure to bring sufficient cash as most places do not accept credit card.

What can I do in Kyoto?

Many people plan their visit to Kyoto in April due to its beautiful cherry blossoms. As a result, many popular destination in Kyoto will be crowded with tourist, which may not be the most pleasant experience trying to fight the crowd. However, here's a few things that we did to avoid the crowd. It's not crowd proof of course, but we had a fair bit of quiet time to ourselves while still enjoying the sights of Kyoto. Most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

1. Explore hiking trails in Kyoto

We did the Kiyotaki River hike, starting from Takao village. As soon as we arrived at Kyoto station from Kansai International Airport in the morning, we dropped our backpacks in one of the Kyoto Station lockers. You only need to pay a one time fee of 700 yen, but you will need to collect your backpacks before 8pm. We hopped on the JR3 bus and got off at Yamashirotakao stop. As you walk deeper into the trail, you will come to a point where rows of cedar trees escort you along the Kiyotaki river. Too beautiful! Also, there were almost nobody on this trail, other than one or two people walking pass you every 20 minutes.

At the start of the trail, you can detour to some temples with small family owned restaurants along the way.

We packed some sushi and onigiri from Family Mart at Kyoto Station and ate by the river.

About 2 hours later when you have arrived at Kiyotaki Village, you can continue your walk to Arashiyama, or hop on a bus with a fixed fare of 230 yen. After all the peace and quiet we had along the Kiyotaki river, we were quite overwhelmed by how crowded Arashiyama was. Nevertheless, it still has its charm although I am abit mindful about dining in Arashiyama as it can be pricey for a meal that I would only rate as average.

The popular bamboo forest. Honestly, we could hardly walk in the bamboo forest due to the amount of tourist. Occassionally, we were asked to move aside as rickshaws after rickshaws were passing through. So, how did I capture the above photo with nobody inside? Watch out for the bamboo forest entrance dedicated for rickshaws, whereby those on foot are not allowed to enter. You just need to stand outside the entrance, and there you go, a perfectly quaint photo of the bamboo forest.

The popular Togetsu-kyo Bridge in Arashiyama.

2. Explore the neighbourhood where you stay

Do not underestimate some rare find that you will discover around your neighbourhood. We happened to stumble upon the best coffee and cold udon for this trip in our neighbourhood.

I also enrolled for a very homely temari sushi making class which was taught in a house at a different neighbourhood, and have learnt so much about Japanese traditions and their homes. Again, I took this opportunity to explore the neighbourhood of Fushimi. Only after the class, I was informed by the host that there are many sake distillery nearby so I did some sake tasting. In that same neighbourhood, I also stumbled upon the prettiest row of cherry blossoms.

Here are some pictures of these neighbourhoods.

Vending machine everywhere. Just for comparison, the cheapest Kirin Lemon Tea that we have purchased was from a very local 2-storey supermarket in Osaka, that only cost 89yen as opposed to the ones from the vending machine that cost 130yen. However, that supermarket was a rare find. So, drinks from the vending machine is equally good as you are on the go!

3. Climb to the top of Mt. Inari

It takes 12,000 steps to get to the top from the start of Fushimi Inari, it was about 45 minutes of continuous ascend. I was panting REALLY HARD. I have no idea how some of the elderly people did it! The start of the torii gates were crowded with people, but as you climb further while most make a turn back down, you will only be greeted by the mystical mountain forest surrounding these torii gates and some tea houses along the way. As I descend, I took a pit stop at a teahouse overlooking Kyoto's sunset. At that time, I was madly falling in love with Kyoto.

4. Explore Higashiyama and Gion

We moved to a traditional hostel - Haruya Hostel in Higashiyama on our 3rd day and it felt like this could be where Doraemon lived. Sorry, no pictures of the hostel as we were really busy living the Doraemon dream. Haha.

We also enrolled ourselves for a tea ceremony experience and we learnt how Japanese treats everything and their guests with respect. Enrolling yourselves in a tea ceremony is not only about making a good cup of matcha, but it is an art that is so abstract, which we have learnt to appreciate. We can proudly make a good cup of matcha now, minusing the artsy side of it.

Gion at dusk.

We stumbled upon this one-of-a-kind food street festival under the cherry blossoms tree at Maruyama Park. Magical.

So this concludes our trip. I hope this post inspires you to get on a jet plane to Kyoto for the next spring!