Travel With Phie

Day 4: Full Day Kyoto

Good morning! Today we woke up around 6am to get going and beat some of the crowds to the touristy areas of Kyoto. We ended up leaving around the Airbnb around 6:30am and attempted to go to a breakfast place Nick had found. We showed up, but were turned away due to our group size. 

We decided to find something along the way instead. This lead us to having an ice cream from a vending machine for breakfast. It was delicious and we continued onward to one of the most famous Temples – Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.

We arrived and started to explore. We went up to the mountain shrines and around most of the grounds before deciding to continue onward with the entire loop. The sun was beating down and everyone was sweating through everything, but we kept going up. 

We saw the signs that said there was a fallen tree but until we got to the top and saw the path was closed did we understand that it meant we could not make it to the top. We made it as far as we could before we turned around and headed back down to the base.

Once we got to the base we decided to venture into a nearby 7/11 for a ~real~ breakfast. We all got our typical items which ranged from rice balls to coffee to chocolate. We stood in a corner Alley that had shade while we ate our acquired breakfast items. 

After we finished eating, we continued on with our plan for the day which meant the next stop was the Kyoto Bamboo Forrest. We took a 25ish minute train from the temple base to the Bamboo Forrest. Once we arrived at the station we walked around 15ish minutes to the entrance. 

The Forrest was aligned with bamboo, but it was quite crowded at this point that we continued onward to see if we went higher we could avoid the crowds. This was the case as well as we found a little garden area. It was 1,000 yen to go and we decided to do it. I’m so glad we did because it was some of the prettiest views of the entire trip. 

The gardens were gorgeous and there was quite a bit of shade with helped since it was real feel of about 102 degrees. It was probably only a 15-20 minute walk around the entire gardens, but we could to see views of both landscapes as well as Kyoto from a view point. I would highly recommend if you ever get the chance. 

After we finished with the gardens, we continued back down to the base of the Forrest. We wondered into 1-2 shops and continued on our way. The boys decided they wanted to venture into a nearby art museum and so we all decided to go. The art was very beautiful most of which were paintings from different eras. It was very cool to see and a quick little excursion. 



Once we finished walking around the 3 small museum galleries we decided to catch the next bus to start Ashley’s itinerary of the day. The itinerary started in shopping district of Kyoto – which was a very popular area. We walked in and out of a couple stores for a while buying a couple little items. After a little while we decided to make our way to get Matcha at a place Ashley found online (7T+). 

It was about a 15 minute walk from the Uni Qlo we were at, so we made our way over. When we got there the place was packed, so we waited outside for about 5 minutes before entering. Once we entered, we ordered 3 iced Matcha’s for Ash, Laura, and myself. We got to watch them make the Matcha and choose with stand/variation we wanted. We choose the one that would be the sweetest. It was cool to watch how precise everything was when it came to them making the latte. After they were finished making the lattes they offered us additional sweeter. We agreed and added a little agave to make it even a little sweeter and it was then perfect! 

We headed back to meet up with Laura and the boys back towards the center of the shopping district. When we arrived they were raving about their newest purchase with was a mini ring watch from a gumball looking machine. Once we were all back together we decided to walk through Nishiki Market. This was a fun market with a row with a wide variety of food options. We went through fairly quick as we were going to the Gion Kagai Art Museum to see a Geisha Show.  

We started making our way in that general direction while keeping an eye out for dinner places nearby. It started to sprinkle a little while on our way, but we keep going and it honestly felt nice as first, but sadly, with the rain came extra humidity. On our way we found what looked to be a very good Noodle place and we pinned the spot to come back to for dinner later that night. 

We arrived at the Art Museum and went straight to the show. The show only lasted about 10 minutes and it was very cool to see and witness a part of the culture. The performance was two different variations of dance and it was interesting to witness and see both. After it was completed, we took a quick walk around the rest of the museum looking at all the aspects of dress. 

We then headed back to the shopping area to browse around before the dinner spot opened at 6pm. On our way back to the shops, we saw a donut shop (Koe Donut Tokyo) and knew we needed to stop in to tie us over for dinner. They were delicious!

Since it was a tiny restaurant, we decided to arrive at 6pm on the dot to ensure we got in. We shopped around for ~30 minutes before we headed back towards the restaurant – Handmade Udon Mnkukinya. When we arrived there was a line of people lined up, so we got in line. 

Thankfully they had enough space for us to squeeze in as well and we sat at bar. We ordered our first Udon as well as tempura of the trip and to this point I think it became for sure a top 2 meal of the trip. It was so good! The tempura was very lightly battered and the soup had a lot of good flavor. 

After dinner we decided to go see one of the famous Kyoto Temples. We walked through what was seemingly an older part of town. The streets were a bit smaller and they went up hill to the temple. This meant we got a pretty sunset which was great. We kept walking through the streets and saw a couple other temples on our journey around town. We started at the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple which was closed to actually explore due to the time of day. We then continued onto Hokan-ji temple. Finally, arrived at Yasaka Shrine our final stop of the night. In between the temples we got to explore the small streets and witness the sunset. 

After seeing all the landmarks we decided it was time to turn in after a long day of exploring the city. Since the train was only 15 minutes faster and the walk was only 2 miles we decided to walk back. Ashley and I ventured back together while Laura, Nick and John grabbed a last minute snack from the Ice Cream vending machine. 

Once we arrived back at the Airbnb, we showered and headed to bed. It was honestly such a great day getting to explore the city. 

Goodnight!