For the last day of our trip, my mom, sis and I went to Kyoto. Kyoto is pretty close to Nagoya, so I’ve been lucky that I’ve been a few times already. Since it was my mom’s first time, we chose some popular tourist spots to visit.

After arriving in Gion early in the morning, we first dropped off our bags at our ryokan, then headed out to our first spot that day – Tofukuji. It was actually my first time at Tofukuji. I’ve wanted to go on previous occasions, but the temple closes pretty early so I never had a chance to visit. This time we decided to specially make room for it.

The temple itself was pretty tranquil and much quieter than most other temples in Kyoto. It’s a little tucked out of the way, so there weren’t as many tourists there, at least early in the morning. The gardens are quite pretty and I would recommended visiting for those who prefer a more relaxed environment.

For lunch we made the slow and strenuous trek towards Kiyomizudera. The closest station is pretty far from the temple, so it took almost 45 minutes before we got halfway up the hill. By the time we made it inside the restaurant, it was close to 2pm, so we had a late yudofu lunch.

Afterwards we paid the admission to go inside Kiyomizudera. The last time I was there it was the fall, so the leaves were in an array of vibrant colours. This time it was January and there was nothing to see except for dark greens and browns. It’s not even worth posting a pic of it here. Haha

For dinner that night we headed back to our ryokan, Shinmonso, for dinner. They served us a really delicious meal inside our room. The service, food and location of the ryokan was excellent, so I would definitely go back again if I were to stay in the Gion area.

The next day my mom and sis had to head off to the airport. After I saw them off at Kyoto Station, I decided to travel to Arashiyama to make use of my morning. This time I made sure to stop at Randen Arashiyama Station, which is almost an attraction in itself. There’s a lot of art in the station as well as a foot bath. For 200 yen you can go inside to use the bath and they give you a free towel as a souvenir.

After walking around for the remainder of the morning, I finally headed back to Kyoto Station to catch my bus back to Nagoya. Overall it was a good trip to Kansai this time around. Kyoto is definitely one of those spots you can keep going again and again and find something new each time.