First Time in Enchanting Kyoto

I like Kyoto for its nice balance of culture, natural beauties, and modernization.  I once said that one day was not enough to explore the whole richness Kyoto could offer, but it could be sufficient to have a bit taste each of it. On one day trotting around Kyoto, I had my own note for these five things.

Shrines and temples

Kyoto is known as city with thousands temple and shrines. When I first arrived in Kyoto, I took a map especially spotted only temples and shrines in entire city. I thought that no matter how long I visited Kyoto, whether it a day or a month, I would not be able to see it one by one, or I would not spend my time in Kyoto for only visiting all of those temple and shrines. Therefore, when it comes to temples and shrines screening, we better choose wisely, whether it the UNESCO heritage mark, uniqueness, beautiful scenery, or history that we are interested in. Oh, there’s one more, what kind of pray that we want to pray since each temple has its own strength or designation.

Geisha

Kyoto is hardly separated from geisha and there’re special districts for them. It seemed to me that Kyoto was proud of geisha’s existence (and why not anyway?). So, when trotting a day or two around Kyoto, maiko and geisha would be our common sights. They appeared in all form; not only the real elegant maiko and geisha, there were also tourists who were experiencing geisha (studio geisha), geisha drawings, posters, mannequins, and many others. I bought one bookmark with the back’s shadow of a Geisha was printed on it.

Yukata

Related to the existence of geisha and also thousands shrine and temple, yukata appeared around the alleys and lanes which were directed to any temples and shrines. That kind of sight that would be able to trigger the feeling, as though each alley or lane was the catwalk and you were one of attendees, sitting at the front row of that Japan traditional robe fashion show.

Old wooden house

I was captivated by few exquisite alleys, which were filled with well-preserved old Japanese wooden buildings.

Shinkansen

Last, from many others uniqueness of Kyoto that I won’t mention one by one here, is shinkansen. If you want to experience riding the bullet train, but later lose your desire because of its not-that-cheap price, treat yourself a ride of shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka, or vise versa, like what my friends and I did. It’s the shortest line and of course is not as expensive as the longer lines. Ah, don’t forget to capture that unique moment uniquely.

Please share something about Kyoto.

Advertisement