How to Take Advantage of 1 Day in Kyoto

Visiting Kyoto

During my trip to Japan, we planned on staying in Tokyo for a week.  After realizing we wanted to see more of the country than just one city, we decided on taking the bullet train to Kyoto.  It’s usually a six hour drive in the car, but it’s only two and a half hours on the train.  Given that we valued our time more in this circumstance, we opted for the bullet train – plus you have to experience it while in Japan!  All of the trains in this amazing country are sleek, roomy, clean, and quick.  We picked up a few Japanese snacks in the train station and feasted on them during the ride.  There are outlets for charging your devices, trays to eat your snacks, and leg room to actually relax.

We only gave ourselves one day and one night in Kyoto.  I recommend staying about three days instead, but if you’re like us and only spend a day there, here are some tips:

Stay close to Kyoto Station or right next to a subway station.

We stayed at the Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Shijo.  It was a five minute walk to the Shijo Station, which is only two stops north of the Kyoto Station.  All of the bullet trains make the stop at Kyoto Station, so if you’re just passing through Kyoto like us, you shouldn’t stray too far.  It was nice, centrally located, and had it’s own onsen (bath house).  I generally like to stay in Airbnbs, but couldn’t find one for my dates in Kyoto – the Mitsui Garden Hotel ended up being perfect.  The room was less than $100/night for two double beds.

Visit multiple temples.

We went to Fushimi Inari-taisha, a large and very picturesque shrine.  It was beautiful, and I recommend going, but be warned that it will be pretty crowded.  This shrine is the most popular in Kyoto, with it’s long tunnels of torii (arches).  We have a ton of other temples on our wish list that we ending up not getting to see because of our poor time management skills.  One of the ones I would’ve loved to see is Kinkaku-ji.  It’s the gorgeous golden temple by a body of water that you’ve probably seen pictures of.  If you look at a map of Kyoto, you’ll see that there are dozens of temples and shrines close to each other.  I would ask your Airbnb host or front desk clerk once you arrive in Kyoto for a recommendation.

Take public transporation.

Taxis are relatively expensive, but you can take the bus or subway for pretty cheap.  One mistake we made was asking locals for advice on the bus routes but not double checking them.  Everyone is so nice in Kyoto, but the language barrier can create some issues if you’re not certain where you’re going.  We ended up waiting for a bus for 40 minutes because someone behind us kept telling us the buses pulling in weren’t going to the temple we were looking for.  Turns out the bus stop we were looking for was across the street, and we would’ve found it if we had just double checked on the map on the bus station.  We ended up taking an expensive taxi ride because we didn’t want to waste anymore time.  Lesson learned – do a little research on the public transportation beforehand.

Check out Nishiki Market.

It was the first market we went to in Japan, so we were mesmerized.  It’s shockingly clean for being an open air food market with tons of seafood.  Everything looks so foreign, yet is so delicious.  Some of our favorites were the squid (pictured above), fish cakes, and anything matcha.  We bought something to eat every 20 feet because we were so intrigued.  One very important thing to note:

It’s not chocolate, it’s red bean paste.

Don’t be fooled (as we were, many times).  It’s never chocolate.  It’s always red bean paste.  “Wouldn’t that delicious matcha mochi ball thing be sooo good, especially because the inside is chocolate?!”  One innocent bite proves it’s red bean paste.  We spent a lot of time at this market, and in hindsight we should’ve allocated less time here and more time exploring temples.  This point is especially true since there are markets all of Tokyo as well, and we were spending substantially more time in Tokyo.

End your busy day at an onsen.

We went to one recommended by our hotel, and it was magical.  The onsens are divided by gender, so we left our male friend on his own. You’re given two towels when you check in, but no other instructions.  Turns out, you have to be completely nude.  We went in our bathing suits like a bunch of newbies, and got some funny stares in the changing room.   I was with one of my best friends from childhood, so seeing each other naked for the zillionth time didn’t bother us.

Once you strip down, you shower at these little booths by the baths, and then you can test out the different pools.  The one we went to had an indoor bath, an indoor bath with silica, and an outdoor bath with waterfalls.  There was also a very cold bath outside, as well as a sauna and steam room.  It was such a neat experience, and very relaxing.   We were so tired afterwards that we fell asleep not only in the waiting room waiting for our male companion (oops), but also in the taxi ride back to our hotel (double oops).  Definitely don’t plan on a crazy night at the bars after an onsen!