Nishiki Market 錦市場, also known as Kyoto’s Kitchen, is a more than 400-year-old, 400-metre arcade full of cooked food, seafood, eateries, shops, and fresh food ingredients that never fail to entice locals’ and travelers’ tastebuds. Time to fill your stomachs and stock up your kitchens!
Tofukuji 東福寺 is one of Kyoto’s 5 greatest zen temples with a famed landscape garden designed by Mirei Shigemori. The temple garden is one of the best places to admire those gorgeous autumn colors and Japanese maple leaves — on trees or scattered to create a vibrant carpet of reds, oranges, and yellows.
If you have been a fan of Japanese animation films, you’ll be familiar with images of foxes often appearing as mystical messengers. But that’s the not reason why Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社 Fushimi Inari Taisha) attracted me and many visitors from afar. Located just 2 stations away from Kyoto Station at the JR Inari Station, this shrine housed the famed and flaming red torii gates (鳥居) in the thousands all the way up the Inari mountain (稲荷山), promising a sight not to be missed. That’s how this sight got its name – Senbon Torii (千本鳥居), literally meaning thousands of torii gates. But, before we get to that… On a beautiful autumn day, we arrive at the entrance of Fushimi Inari Shrine, where young Japnese maple trees lined the avenue against clear blue skies and the Inari Mountain in the background. There are 2 torii gates at the entrance, with the one located at the end of this avenue being the larger one. It was a good day – lots of sunshine, a cool temperature, and …
Nijo Castle (二条城) is the first castle I visited in Japan. Situated in Kyoto, this Castle is famed for its “nightingale floors” (鴬張りuguisubari) found in the corridors of Ninomaru Palace (二の丸御殿 Ninomaru goten) – a National Treasure that one has got to see, and in this instance, hear in order to experience how it must have been like to live in the 16th century where shoguns ruled the day. The Castle was built upon the order of the 1st Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) in 1603. It was completed during the reign of the 3rd shogun, Iemitsu, in 1626. The Castle served as the Tokugawa shogunate’s center of power in Kyoto. Teamed with the dramatic, stormy skies that day, Nijo Castle appeared like it came right out of a samurai movie. I could almost envision ninjas darting across roofs in a silent attempt to assassinate some officials. This white building, found at the corners of the Nijo Castle, is probably where guards would station themselves to look out for possible attacks. A wide moat surrounds …
Located in the Arashiyama (嵐山) district in Kyoto, Japan, Tenryu-ji Zen Temple (天龍寺 or “Temple of the Celestial Dragon”) with its beautiful landscape garden, Sogenchi Garden, is a must-go before heading to the nearby famous bamboo groves. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tenryu-ji was considered first among the five great Zen temples in Kyoto. You can read more about its history here. Head here early in the morning to avoid the crowd and truly enjoy the spectacular views that the garden offers. Entry fees are ¥100 for the temple and ¥500 for the garden. Before heading to the entrance of the temple and buying the entry tickets, there is already beauty to behold – smaller shrines with exquisite gardens and the striking Torii (鳥居). Don’t miss looking into each enclave. Get your tickets at the entrance to the Temple, and leave your shoes at the shoes’ pigeon hole before stepping into the tatami-laid grounds of the Temple. For the temple, you can sit and admire the landscape garden with its koi pond, rocks, trees and …
