torii gate | Just Booked A Trip

Kyoto has always been one of the cities I was most excited to visit in Japan – but also one that I felt a bit unsure about. Everything that I read about Kyoto was mentioning the masses of tourists in high season (which was when I was travelling there), but the photos looked too beautiful to skip it. In the end, that’s also my summary about Kyoto: yes, it is crazy touristy and nope, there really isn’t a way to avoid the crowds unless you wake up suuuuper early. But is it worth it? Yes!

I started my time in Kyoto by exploring the old part of the city called Gion – „geisha town“. I did not see any geishas myself, my guess is that they’ve had enough of all the tourists. The little streets are still pretty to walk through and there are some very impressive temples to visit in Gion and North of it. I also walked around the Philosopher’s path (although I didn’t find it that special) and kind of randomly visited whichever temple appealed to me from the outside. In the end, I think they are all impressive and it doesn’t really matter which ones you choose to visit. I was stressing out about having to see as many as possible, but once you have seen 4-5, it gets kind of repetitive and I guess that’s enough to get a good impression.

A more special temple is certainly the „Golden Temple“, which is located a bit outside the city center and can be reached by bus. Once again, Google Maps was super helpful in planning my journey on public transport through Kyoto! Even though it was a grey day, the gold was still very shiny and beautiful.

One of the main images that comes up when you google Kyoto, are the red torii gates of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. A very worthwhile visit! While it is crazy touristy at the bottom, there is a loop walk you can do that takes you to the top of the mountain and then down again, and the further you progress, the less tourists you will see. It gets really nice and peaceful at some point. This shrine was one of my highlights of my time in Japan, so don’t miss out and definitely do the whole „hike“ – it is easy just following stairs.

Another one of those „Insta-famous“ spots in Kyoto is the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and I have a very different opinion about that one. Skip it. If you have ever seen bamboo in your life, or if you are planning to visit Koya-san or hike Tsumago-Magome, you will see wild bamboo there that is just as impressive. The „forest“ in Kyoto isn’t much more than a few hundred meters of a narrow paved walkway with bamboo growing on each side…and hundreds of tourists, all trying to take the perfect selfie. I got here early around 7am, but even so, it was already getting busy. When I returned a bit later to have another look around 9am, you could barely see the path anymore and had to push through the crowds. Not my kind of place…

I stayed in Kyoto for a while and also went out climbing for two days with a French guy I met on a Facebook group for climbing in Japan. We had lots of fun climbing random routes as we had no topo, but also struggled with the Japanese highway system that isn’t set up for tourists. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos!

On my last day, I went on a day trip to Nara. Nara was a bit unlucky… as it didn’t have much of a chance for me to like it. Firstly, I went there on a Sunday, so it was even busier than it probably would have been during the week. Lots of Japanese tourists! Secondly, I was kind of „templed-out“ after my time in Kyoto, even though Nara certainly has some beautiful temples to offer.

One of the main reasons to visit Nara though, are the tame deer, that (over)populate the city. I’m a bit ambivalent about them to be honest. Sure, they are cute, but they are being fed and can get quite pushy/aggressive if you don’t feed them the cookies fast enough, that you can buy at every corner. Not sure if this really contributes to a balanced eco-system… Also, I already saw some (kind of tame) deer on Miyajima Island near Hiroshima, and somehow I liked them better there, as there wasn’t so much of a push to feed them and there were less of them crowding the streets. Also, there is the nature of the surrounding mountain area there, so I’m hoping that they are at least living a half-way natural life still there and can escape the tourists. Overall, I don’t think Nara is a necessary stop to make in Japan.

From Tokyo, I took a shinkansen train all the way South to Hiroshima, the Southern-most point of my travel route through Japan’s main island Honshu. To be honest, it felt like I had to include Hiroshima in my itinerary, but I was never particularly excited about it. I thought its dark history might make it a depressing place to visit. What I didn’t expect, is to find this green, lively city next to all memorial parks and museums. The Peace Memorial Park itself is a beautiful memorial place that is larger than expected and really nice to walk around, explore and let history sink in.

I didn’t get a chance to visit the Peace Memorial Museum (which probably would have been depressing), but I got a little glimpse into eyewitness reports etc. in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall, which is essentially a free „mini museum“ for people like me that don’t have enough time to visit the actual, large museum (I guess).

I also visited Hiroshima Castle. It was my first castle in Japan, so I really liked it – but even in hindsight it was probably my second favourite one (after Himeji). A good thing to know is that these castles are usually completely empty inside. I went inside a few during my time in Japan and there usually wasn’t really anything to see – unlike castles in Europe.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a restaurant that I had found on Google Maps that was supposed to offer vegetarian okonomiyaki. There are different versions of this Japanese dish across the country and the Hiroshima ones are apparently famous and special, so I had to try them! Essentially, it’s a dish that is fried a put together in layers consisting of vegetables, noodles, eggs, sauces (and if you eat meat, there will be some bacon, fish powder etc.). It doesn’t look that pretty once it is assembled, but it tastes delicious and I was happy to be able to try a veggie version of it!

On my second day, I went on a day trip to Miyajima Island, an island that is known for its red torii gate which is located in the ocean. Good to check tides for your visit to make sure there is some water when you visit for the pretty reflections! It’s an easy day trip from Hiroshima, accessible by tram and ferry.

When I arrived, I of course first checked out the torii gate and took lots of photos from different angles, and of course went to visit the temples and shrines surrounding it.

Then, I started my hike up to the summit of Mt. Misen, the island’s peak. On the way, I came across Daishoin temple, which was super pretty surrounded by nature, little sculptures and lots to take in. I spent much more time exploring it than I had thought I would.

At one point, I pushed on though, as I still wanted to make it to the summit and all the way back down the mountain of course… The trail itself was easy to find and well-maintained as usually in Japan. Views from the top were nice and I liked seeing some more of Japan’s nature!

Next day, I had originally wanted to cycle the Shimanami Kaido – a 60km cycling route that connects Honshu to Shikoku island, passing across multiple islands along the way. I was really disappointed when I found out that it takes long to get to the start and end point of the route on public transport and because of my meeting schedule (working while travelling, hey!), I could not make it work time-wise. Something for next time, I guess!

Instead, I opted to visit Himeji as a day trip, which I had originally wanted to see as a stopover along the way to Osaka the day after. It’s always good to leave some flexibility in your travel plans to re-shuffle things a bit when needed. Luckily, trains are fast in Japan, so even though Himeji doesn’t „really“ make sense as a day trip from Hiroshima, I made it work without wasting too much time. Himeji is a bright white castle, probably the most famous one to visit in Japan. It is especially popular during cherry blossom season – and luckily, there were still some of the precious blossoms left, even if not that many.

I really liked Himeji and walked around the castle grounds for a while. Again, I visited the inside as well and again, there wasn’t really much to see other than empty hallways. I also visited Kokoen Garden next to the castle, as I had some time left before returning to Hiroshima. Overall, Himeji is pretty, but could definitely be a (very) quick stop along the route and you could even just reduce it to walking around the castle’s main viewpoints, as these are beautiful but there isn’t much more to it.