Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan (February 2025)

From Takayama to Kyoto, we traveled ourselves without a guide or a driver. We took a JR Limited Express at Takayama Station, a 2-minute walk from our hotel, to Nagoya Station where we took a Shinkansen to Kyoto. The transit time at Nagoya Station was only 10 minutes, which made us a little nervous, but we ended up having no problem. Nagoya Station is considered the largest train station in Japan.

The following day, we met a new guide, Katsumi-san, and went on a Kyoto City Tour. Kyoto was the old capital city of Japan. Thus, the city is known to have 2,000 temples and shrines. The first place we visited was Kinkaku Temple. The temple's golden color represents its name. 

After Kinkaku Temple, we went to visit Nijo Castle, which was the Kyoto home for the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Edo Period. The Imperial Palace was close by, but later, he persuaded the Emperor to move his Palace to the current Tokyo. 

We went to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine located on Mt. Inari. Inari is a god of rice, fox in appearance, worshipped by most farmers. This shrine is famed for the 1,000 Torii gates to the shrine. All the toriis were sponsored by Shinto believers as indicated in the back of each torii. 

We also went to see Gion District. Gion is a geisha district in Kyoto. Gion has a small but important shrine where all geishas worship in their belief. Geisha is a general term used all over Japan to indicate a woman of art. In Kyoto and western Japan, the term Geiko is used. It means the woman of art. 

While we were there, we did not see any geikos. So I borrowed a couple of photos from Google.

We passed through a temple to meet our driver.

For dinner, we found Yakitori Ichiban Izakaya. Izakaya is a bar-style restaurant where you could order and eat a variety of small dishes. We ended up ordering 25 plates of food. 

A 2-night stay in Kyoto is obviously insufficient to fully understand and experience Kyoto, but we were gratefully content with what we experienced. - Jeffrey