Fushimi Inari at dawn
Ten thousand gates, almost no one else.
01 / JAPAN
ScrollKyoto
A thousand temples. One quiet morning.
Best timeMar – May, Oct – Nov
Ideal duration5 – 7 days
ClimateMild spring, crisp autumn
CurrencyJapanese yen
VisaVisa-free for many, 90 days
01 / WHY GO
Kyoto rewards the early riser and the slow walker. Arrive before the gates open and you will have moss gardens almost to yourself.
Stay in a family-run ryokan, take tea with a host who has practised for forty years, and eat at a counter of eight seats where the chef hands you each course. Then let yourself get lost in Gion as the lanterns come on.
02 / HIGHLIGHTS
Moments worth the journey.
A private tea ceremony
With a teacher in a 200-year-old machiya.
Arashiyama by bicycle
Bamboo, river and a riverside lunch.
Nishiki market
Pickles, tofu skin and knife-makers.
A night in a ryokan
Cedar baths and a kaiseki dinner.
Nara day trip
Temples, deer and old cedar forest.
Ways to see it.
A LOCAL TIP“Walk Philosopher’s Path on a weekday at seven. Then get coffee at the tiny shop by the bridge. Nobody writes about it.”
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