Hello everyone, I’ll be going to Japan for the first time in November with a friend, and I will be staying in Kyoto for five and a half days.
This is one of the days that I feel more packed and the places we want to visit are not that close to each other. So any feedback would be appreciated (Especially anything regarding food places around any of these).
* (Starting around 7 am) Kitano Tenmangu Shrine
* Ryoan ji
* Ninna ji
* Myoshin ji (we only want to go to Yoko-en Pond Garden)
* Kinkaku ji
* Kyoto Botanic Garden
* Kyoto Imperial Palace (Ideally we would like to be here around 3:00 to be able to explore the castle itself and then after it closes we could explore the gardens themselves bc they are open all day)
* Explore the area a bit
We’ll be using the Kyoto day pass to take advantage of the multiple rides we would need to get that day.
We don’t have exact hours, but if we seem like we might not manage to get to the Imperial Palace at 3:00 we would skip some of the shrines in the middle.
Just to add a little bit of context, we are both 24 years old and we don’t mind walking a lot.
And that would be it! Thanks in advance for your attention and help 🙂
3 comments
All I can say is that this is very ambitious, and frankly not feasible. You need to pare this down. While you may want to start at 7 AM, are the shrines even open?
I know you are saying that you don’t mind walking a lot, but with this itinerary, you are going to barely have enough time do anything.
I know it’s September, but don’t underestimate the heat.
Kitano Tenmangu is open from 7am.
Sounds a wee bit ambitious but doable! …. if you cut a bit.
Between Kitano and Ryoanji, consider walking out the north exit and heading west and you’ll hit Hirano shrine. Huge tree. Rare yellow torii. If you head out the back side of the shrine to the west you’ll pop out on a road that takes you toward an austere imperial mausoleum and further in the delightful temple Toji-in. After that head north along the west side of Ritsumeikan’s campus and you’re at Ryoanji. I’d probably hop a bus to Ninnaji if the timing was right but it’s also also walkable if you’re fit and want the exercise. Pretty straight shot along the same road.
For cutting, you could just walk the palace grounds (no need to get there by 3pm), it’s 24 hours). Or cut Kinkakuji. I’d probably cut the botanical garden since it’s an outlier area-wise, add Kinkakuji before Ryoanji, and call it a day.
Honestly.. if you want to be able to enjoy each shrine, you’re not gonna make it to imperial palace with that packed of a schedule. You can just kind of play by ear as you go depending on the time, but be prepared to skip a few.