This is the part 2 to my previous post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/184q43w/trip_report_part_1_hiroshima_kurashiki_naoshima/). For this leg of the trip we were based in Kyoto (Gion area) for 5 nights.
**ARASHIYAMA**
***Highlights***
* Okochi Sanso Villa: Well worth the entry fee. This and the Hozugawa river cruise are probably my two favourite things to do in Arashiyama. The view from the pavillion at the top is gorgeous in autumn.
* Saga Toriimoto: Really nice area with traditional housing, cafes and small shops. It doesn’t get much traffic as most people don’t venture that far up.
* Honourable mentions:
* Monkey Park Iwatayama was a lot smaller than I expected but the monkeys were cute and the view was great.
* Adashino Nenbutsuji: On the small side but it has its own small bamboo grove.
* Naked Flowers at Nijo Castle: Nice experience but I’d probably recommend going to a temple autumn illumination over this if you have the time to spare.
***Food***
* Shigetsu: We got their most basic course and even that came with heaps of food. Very popular with the vegetarian/vegan crowd. The only caveat is that you have to buy a garden ticket for Tenryuji to access the restaurant.
* Donut stand: There’s a popular creme brulee donut shop in the Nijo area called Brulee – this stand in Arashiyama is one of their offshoots. The donuts aren’t freshly baked but still taste pretty good, especially if you like creme brulee.
* Vegan Uzu Ramen: Easy to reserve via Tablecheck. The food was great – would recommend the tsukemen and shoyu ramen. The vegan sushi was suprisingly quite good.
**SOUTH KYOTO + OSAKA**
***Highlights***
* Fushimi Inari: We veered away from the main path, which was already getting pretty crowded at 7:30AM, and chose to explore the bamboo forest instead. Finding the entrance took a few goes and even then we hit a dead end at a shrine and missed the path that goes up to the peak. That said, getting lost in the area away from the crowds even for an hour was well worth it.
* Toufukuji: Some of the prettiest autumn colours in Kyoto in my opinion, but I’d strongly recommend going shortly before closing as opposed to right when they open in the peak of autumn. There was a sizeable crowd of very passionate elderly folk well before opening, and the ticket booth was in a complete frenzy for the first 20-30 minutes. The crowds did thin out a little towards the middle of the walking path through the temple.
* Abeno Harukas: The night view was fantastic. I preferred this to Umeda Sky Building.
* TeamLab Nagai Botanical Garden: I actually enjoyed this a lot – they did agood job integrating the works into the park itself. Would recommend to any Teamlab fans. If I could redo this day, I’d probably allocate this and Abeno Harukas to separate days because our feet were destroyed by the end of it.
***Food***
* Cafe January: Nice cafe near Toufukuji temple. Menu is limited to breakfast sets before 11AM.
* Kuromon Market: Didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. Prices are high and it’s unsuprisingly very geared towards tourists.
* Cafe Annon: Lived up to the hype. We made a reservation but there was no need as it was pretty quiet at 4PM on a Tuesday.
* Daiki Suisan Kaitenzushi (Abeno Q’s Mall): Okay but not great. Wouldn’t go again.
**HIGASHIYAMA**
***Highlights***
* Sosuibensen canal + Aqueduct: There’s a short trail running from Keage Station past the Nanzenji Aqueduct along the Sosuibensen canal. Very quite and peaceful. The Aqueduct was impressive but was already started to get crowded at 9AM.
* Eikando: I’d been here once for the autumn illumination on a previous trip so I wanted to see it during the day as well. It’s a lovely temple with pretty fall colours but very popular and very crowded, though we did come roughly an hour after opening. I suspect the best time to go is probably close to closing. It was disappointing to find that they had installed coin lockers in the little observatory looking out onto the river, but with how crowded it got the last time I was here, I’m not too surprised.
* Ginkakuji: Another popular temple with beautiful grounds, particularly in autumn. This, Eikando and the Philosopher’s path running in between make for a really nice day out.
* Kiyomizudera illumination: The view of the main hall at night is stunning. Go right before closing (a little before 9PM) for the best experience. I cannot stress this enough.
***Food***
* Cafe Yamamoto: One of the few cafes in the Gion area we found that opened early (7:30AM). Food was good.
* Ao-onigiri: Really yummy rice balls in a ridiculous variety of flavours – the best we had this whole trip. The shop is only open on certain days so I’d recommend checking the owner’s instagram for the schedule.
* Miyoneshi Fumiya: Serves set meals but note that seating is unreserved so secure an available table first before ordering. We tried the riceball set – the ones at Aoonigiri were better but these were still pretty good, and the white miso soup was delicious.
* Mo-an cafe: This is a small cafe in a traditional teahouse hidden away in the forest in Yoshidayama park. The way to cafe from the residential area and into the forest was marked out by tiny wood pickets. They mainly serve desserts now but ocassionally serve meals on a seasonal basis. The drinks and cakes were delicious. I’d recommend reserving ahead of time, although they do have a waiting room on the first floor. Yoshida Kaguraoka-cho is also well worth exploring and features Taisho-era residential housing. This cafe and the surrounding area was easily the best part of our day and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back.
* Ramen Nishiki: This ramen shop specialises in seabream broth but they also offer a pretty good vegan tomato ramen. Go a little before opening as they only seat 8 people at a time – granted if you do miss out on the first seating, they’ve got a long bench inside so you don’t have to wait out in the cold.
**NARA + OSAKA**
***Highlights:***
* Nara Park: We didn’t get to spend as much time in Nara as we would have liked given we slept in. This particular day was a public holiday (Labour Day) so Nara felt like a good choice since Nara Park is spread over a large area. It was also a great way to see the autumn leaves. If I were to do it again, I’d definitely come a lot earlier in the day. We left late afternoon to go to Osaka for dinner.
* Dotonbori: Maybe a little controversial but I’m not a fan of Dotonbori because of how crowded it gets at night. Shoulder to shoulder crowds are just not my thing. That said, I do think everyone should take the opportunity to see it at night at least once.
***Food:***
* Cafe Blue Fir Tree: Delicious fluffy pancakes and french toast. Great place for breakfast in the Gion area and opens relatively early (9AM). It filled up by 9:30AM but granted it was a public holiday.
* Maguro Koya: Tuna heaven. I was a little wary since it’s a lot more popular with foreign tourists than locals or domestic tourists, but I really enjoyed the food. We got the double layer ootoro bowl. Would go again.
* Jun-chan sushi: This place is well known for using thick slices of fish. The aburi toro was glorious. We made a reservation in advance since it was a public holiday, which ended up being a good call.
**GHIBLI PARK**
* 4 out of the 5 areas are currently open so we figured it was worth a visit this trip. The fifth area (Valley of the Witches) is due to open early next year in March.
* I would strongly recommend booking tickets via the domestic site (Boo Woo). There are plenty of guides on how to do this, although I will add that using incognito mode bypasses a lot of the forced redirects. Booking via the domestic site gives you access to the earliest time slot for the Warehouse which is arguably the most popular exhibit and has the most queues. We only had to wait 20 minutes for the photo exhibit and got it out of the way first thing so we could take our time with the rest of the warehouse.
* Don’t skip the Mononoke area – they currently offer a gohei mochi making experience which was easily my favourite part of the day.
* The Japanese garden adjacent to Dondoko Forest is worth the detour, particularly in autumn.
* There is a free shuttle bus that connects most of the major areas of the entire expo park but it fills up fast.
* Having been to both now, I’d echo that the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo still offers a better experience. Unless you’re a diehard Ghibli fan, I’d only recommend making the trip out to Ghibli Park if you happen to be nearby.
***Food***
* Soyogo coffee shop: They sell decent onigiri bentos which we opted for, but if there was also a Mos Burger food truck past the Ghibli Warehouse that was popular too. I believe there is also an udon restuarant downstairs where the ice rink is. Food options are pretty limited in the park otherwise.
* Maruya Honten JR Nagoya: Nagoya station is a horrible maze and we had a really hard time finding this branch. They serve hitsumabushi which is a Nagoya speciality. There’s actually another branch in the Meitetsu department store connected to the station as well. The reason we wanted to go to the JR one specifically is because they have a separate takeout counter. The food takes about 15 minutes to make so there is a bit of a wait but service is fast. We would have ideally liked to eat in but the line was long and it was getting quite late. We ended up eating our takeout boxes on the shinkansen back to Kyoto and they were unsuprisingly delicious. Would recommend.
**FINAL REMARKS:**
* Making reservations in advance for restaurants is not a bad idea if a) you’ve got some kind of dietary restriction that makes it difficult to be spontaneous b) if it’s a Friday or a weekend c) if it offers a unique experience in some way.
* If your accomodation is close to an Amazon locker, you can very easily shop online and have items sent there. Super convenient and saved us from trying to hunt down certain items in store.
* I would avoid planning to be in two cities in one day i.e. Osaka and Kyoto or Osaka and Nara. Although it was manageable, we found it exhausting and it did detract from the experience a little.
* Changing hotels frequently to city hop isn’t all that bad if you’re travelling out of a backpack. We actually enjoyed the first leg of our trip a lot more than the Kyoto leg even though we were changing cities and hotels every day or two. Using luggage forwarding strategically so we were able to swap out clothes every few days made it pretty easy, particularly in the Art Islands and up in Amanohashidate/Ine where toting suitcases around would have been incredibly inconvenient.
* Kyoto can be a nice experience with minimal crowds if you’re selective about where and what time of day you go. The popular sites are popular for a reason but crowds do spoil the experience. The parts of Kyoto we ended up enjoying the most were the ones that were quieter and hidden away, even though they didn’t necessarily offer the best views.
Thank you for reading and hope this was helpful.
