Budget trip to Japan

Day 3: Kyoto.

Activated our 7 day JR pass today. Took an early Shinkansen to Kyoto . Lucky for us, it was a very clear day- we saw Fujiyama from the train. Ask for a ‘Yamagawa’ ticket when reserving a seat (meaning ‘mountain side’) on the Shinkansen.

We dropped our bags off at the K’s house there (10 mins walk from station), and then we took the JR line to Arashiyama (scenic area in western Kyoto) where we spent the rest of the day. We saw some lovely mossy Japanese gardens outside the numerous temples in the area, as well as the famous bamboo grove (which was crowded)

There were some scenic areas around Arashiyama. A lot of the locals seem to have come there for a picnic. We, too, had a little picnic with a packed bento box we brought along. The boat rides looked nice, but we didn’t get around to doing that.

Matcha ice cream was sold at several places in Arashiyama. Japan was full of matcha flavored everything. Personally I didn’t like the flavor much.

The monkey park was a short hike up a hill, which had an OK view of Kyoto, and a number of monkeys that you could feed. Overall, nothing very interesting for us.

Hogonin temple garden- we wandered into this one (with an entrance fee, of course!). One of the many temples in the area with a beautiful mossy garden, and these guys outside it.

The bamboo grove was a little underwhelming.

Day 4: Kyoto.

A day of temple and shrine hopping -Starting with Ginkakuji, the philosopher's path, Heian Shrine, Yasaka shrine, and the Gion area.

Started the day off by taking a bus to the lovely Ginkakuji temple and its gardens. The temple is modeled after the more famous ‘golden pavilion’, or Kinkakuji. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to Kinkakuji during this trip, but it comes highly recommended :)

From Ginkakuji we walked down the ‘Philosopher’s path’ - a scenic walking route. No doubt this would have been better during cherry blossom season, or peak autumn.

From the end of the Philosopher’s path, we walked to the Heian shrine.

We happened to be in Kyoto on the day of the annual Jidai Matsuri parade- a parade celebrating the history of Kyoto.. we saw a number of people in costume, but didn’t really get the context :).

Yasaka Shrine had a number of small eateries outside. On the right is the Hokanji temple pagoda- to get that typical pinterest picture of Kyoto

We ended the day at Kodaiji temple, which had special night time opening hours with their autumn illumination.