A lot of my students have told me that Kyoto would be cold for the winter, but I ended up going anyway for two nights and three days. As many know, Kyoto is the old capital of Japan, and it's known as the city that encompasses the Japanese image; it has so many shrines, temples, and other historical architecture. I went during the Christmas season of 2019, so let me tell you what I got up to. If you plan on going for yourself during the winter in the future, I might have some good information for you here.
First of all, as a Canadian, no, it's not that cold. I'm from Vancouver, the mildest part of Canada, and I still don't think it's all that cold. The temperature there was at its lowest at 8°C, which is really around sweater weather for me. If you do plan on going to Kyoto in winter though, please do check the weather conditions during your stay. I've heard it snows more often there than in Tokyo as it is located in a basin.
My girlfriend and I took the 6 a.m. bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto station. This is recommended if you're travelling from within the country as you can get a bundle deal on hotel room and save on lodging and travel overall. AirBNB's are hard to come by after a recent government crackdown on them in an attempt to protect the hotel industry, but they are still around, albeit more difficult to acquire. According to that link above, in Kyoto, AirBNB operators can only host guests from January to March, for example.
The bullet train ride is about one-and-a-half to two hours from Tokyo station. If you're heading to Kyoto from Tokyo and you're reserving seats, it's highly recommended that you take a seat on the right hand side of the train. On the train we took, the seats on the right side were labelled D and E. These seats are the ones that give you a close-up view of Mount Fuji as you pass. If you don't reserve a seat, there's a chance you could end up with standing room only, especially if your train is in the afternoon during peak season.
We arrived in Kyoto at around 9 in the morning and waited around for the information counter to open up, as there were one-day and two-day transit passes available at this counter. The staff there was very helpful, and even though I was with a native Japanese speaker, the staff slowed down her speaking on the off-chance I could pick some of the information up. The staff here are also capable of speaking English, however, so if you're planning to go to Kyoto, these people would be able to help you out.
We had managed to acquire a room in a hotel that was located directly across from Nijo Castle. After getting our passes, we boarded the subway train to the hotel. The hotel was actually fairly decent, albeit a bit old. The lounge in the lobby was quite fancy and they had a diorama made from sugar of the Nijo Castle on display. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we went straight for Gion.
Gion is probably what most people imagine when they think of Japanese history. The streets of this place are quite traditional and most shops have adapted to that aesthetic. There was a Starbucks here that was modelled to be a somewhat traditional tea house, and the seating was in tatami rooms upstairs. After a bit of walking in the area, we had a lunch of soba at another establishment that fit the local aesthetic, then we went to a locally famous ice cream shop in this area named Kinana that had the smoothest ice cream I've ever had.
Also, I didn't get to see any, but I have heard that you would be able to see maiko (Kyoto geisha in training) in this area. If you do come through to this area, don't be that creepy tourist and actually ask for permission to take their photo. During the entire three-day visit there were plenty of people walking around in kimonos. They're more than likely visitors and they've probably rented kimonos from numerous shops around town.
After finishing with ice cream, we set off for the first temple of this visit: Nanzen-ji. This one was another bus ride away and was located in a very suburban, residential area. Nanzen-ji has four notable features: a large arch-like structure that you can climb up for a fee, an inner garden that you can enter for a fee, a rock garden that you can look at for a fee, and an aqueduct. Note that only one of those didn't have a fee. The aqueduct was the only thing I was interested in, apart from the gardens that we were already walking around in. The entry fees weren't expensive, but I wasn't looking to go inside paid areas when I knew the Kyoto trip would have much more gardens in store for me.
The next destination was Jishou-ji, nicknamed Ginkaku-ji (or the Silver Pavillion, as is often translated to in English.) The rock garden here was much more interesting than what I thought was at Nanzen-ji. There is a trail that goes through the grounds with signs telling you which direction to go, so even if the garden is a bit big, you won't get lost in any capacity. The flora in area was nice to look at, despite the winter season.
It was getting dark by the time we finished with Ginkaku-ji, but there was still daylight. To squeeze the most out of the day, we once again boarded the bus and headed to Heian Shrine. There is a giant red shrine gate on the road and the shrine itself has a massive courtyard. Unfortunately, the most interesting part of the shrine was closed when we got there. The gardens looked to be the most appealing, as it looked to go around the perimeter of the shrine grounds, according to a map at the shrine. Still, the shrine structures themselves were grand and had an other-worldly appearance in the twilight sun.
We stopped by the hotel to officially check in and settle our luggage in our room after Heian Shrine. With a day pass, it was really easy to go back to Kyoto station, so we decided to go there for dinner. It was much easier to find something to eat at a hub of some sort. Chances are, finding a restaurant that was nearby would have driven up our spending and taken us a much longer time deciding.
That being said, okonomiyaki at Kyoto station is actually really good. Okonomiyaki is a distinctly Japanese food, but there are differences in each region. Hiroshima okonomiyaki for example, comes with some fried noodles. Kyoto station's okonomiyaki on the other hand, is the fluffiest version I've tasted. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and got ready for the next day.
Thanks for reading!
For a full day in Kyoto, read part two here.