It’s been a while since I posted about our trip to Japan so here is the start of the second part.

After a lot of moving around during the first part of our trip we would now have four nights in one place. I’ve heard over the years how beautiful Kyoto was but it didn’t quite seem like what I had envisioned. I expected a more slow-paced city along the lines of Chiang Mai in Thailand or Ubud in Bali.

To find the beautiful gardens and ancient temples & sites you need to travel around the city and get off the main roads. When you enter a site all of a sudden the calm, quiet and slow-paced Kyoto appears.

Kyoto is recognized by UNESCO with various sites being named to the World Heritage List under one designation: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. The sites are located in Kyoto, Uji and Otsu. We visited a bunch of these sites around Kyoto and some are mentioned below.

This post will combine the two full days that we spent visting Kyoto

Here are some highlights:

• Ginkaku-ji, The Silver Pavilion
• Wandered around the area of Gion
• Kyoto Station- Isetan Department Store Food Halls
• Rokuon-ji- The Golden Pavilion
• Being taught how to make Cup Noodles from school children
• Ryona-ji- The Dry landscape
• Ninna-ji, Five Story Pagoda
• Seeing 1,000’s of torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine