Japan Travel Adventure – Kyoto City

The final destination on our Japanese travel adventure was Kyoto. As we were planning our trip both of us brain stormed our top wish list places to visit. Mine were obviously Tokyo and Osaka due to the location of Summer Sonic plus I wanted to see the lantern festival in Osaka and have an authentic cultural experience. Corina’s were Hiroshima, Mt Fuji and Kyoto. We had a few others but they had to be culled due to time restrictions. Mt Fuji also ended up on the next time list due to lack of time and after doing our research finding is was the wrong time of year due to poor visibility.

Personally I think we saved the best to last. As I said in my Osaka post in hindsight I would have used Kyoto as a base from which to explore Hiroshima and Osaka to cut back on the number of times I had to pack up and drag my suitcase up and down stairs at railway and subway stations.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan prior to Tokyo. The capital of Japan was considered to be wherever the Emporer lived. Until 1868 the Emporer resided in Kyoto. After this date the home of the Emporer was moved to Tokyo. An interesting bit of trivia is that the word Tokyo is an annagram of Kyoto.

Kyoto has a wealth of culture for you to experience. The temples are gorgeous and have many interesting details. There was a tree growing in the courtyard of the Home of the Buddah Dahma that had wooden supports under the branches to shape them like a life-sized bonsai tree.

Lantern at the entrance gate to the Home of the Budda Dahma Kyoto Japan

Tree that’s been shaped like a life sized Bonsai in the courtyard of the Home of the Budda Dahma

Home of the Buddah Dahma Kyoto Japan

Home of the Buddah Dahma Kyoto Japan

Photo bomb on the streets of Kyoto

The streets of Kyoto were quiet as we walked around in the day as it was very hot. It was the hottest of all the cities we visited. Everyone probably thought we were crazy to be out in the middle of the day walking around. We decided they were right and headed back to our hotel for a rest and to cool off before heading out again in the slightly cooler afternoon / evening to explore further.

For more photos from our walk around Kyoto city follow the link to Liz Hemmings Photography on Facebook