Kyoto

The people are so friendly (even if they don’t speak your language!) and eveything is so beautiful. I can’t wait to go back!! You really need to spend a good 3 or 4 days to really drink in whats going on, especially if you’re a bit of a history and culture nut like me :)

I’ve read Memoirs of a Geisha a gizillion times and it has made me want to see Kyoto and escpecially Gion. I want to walk the Shijo avenue and see the Ichiriki tea house. hehe I don’t even know if they exist, but I want to see the arcitecture, the whole embience of Japan.

I don’t know where to start, but if you go to Japan, you simply have to visit Kyoto.

Visited in February 2006.

You must:
- walk up the hill to the cemetery and pass under the red gates,
- walk through Gion and try to spot a maiko or geisha (and even if you don’t the architecture is beautiful),
- have a look at the little alleys full of tiny bars that seat 5 people,
- go to the undercover arcades and look at the fascinating shops,
- rent a bicycle from your hotel or a nearby department store and go exploring,
- listen to the distinctive tune that the crosswalk plays in the old part of town!

Honey Moon!

My stay in Kyoto was a short but memorable one. Something you should know about Kyoto before going there is that this is a city with a lot of history. And the people living there know it. You are bound to run into some tourist attraction that does a good job of attracting but doesn’t do as well on satisfying, as you would on every famous place in the world including my home city of NYC.

With that out of the way, I must tell you that I’ve fallen in love with Kyoto. I did not pay much attention to the individual historical sites (although I still loved some of the museums and temples in the place). The one thing that gripped me the most was the atmosphere I felt while walking around the city. Far from bustle of Osaka or Tokyo, this city had distinct and persistent color and light, like a masterpiece of a painter. All the while I was there a faint and refreshing aroma of pine forest was in the air, calming my nerve and recalling some sort of distant nostalgia, from a city I’ve never before stayed in my life!

I still keep my memories of the place fondly, and the atmosphere and the air of the place is still very vivid in my mind. I hope anyone planning to visit Kyoto can have the same mystifying experience I had.

more gorgeous than the golden palace.

Lovely place—full of culture and history. There’s no end to the temples and shrines. It’s also dignified, as it’s the former capital city of Japan.

One of my concentrations in college was the development and diffusion of Buddhism. I would really love to visit Kyoto and try to place things in better context on a personal level. History tends to come alive when you visit a place…

I recently came back after living and studying here for a whole semester (about 4-5 months), and I must say… I miss it A LOT. Kyoto is such a lovely city. Even though it can’t compare with the liveliness of the big cities (ie. Osaka and Tokyo), there are a lot of treasures here just waiting for you to discover it!

Kyoto, I feel has more sophistication—far from the loudness of the big cities—and it is also apparent in the way people dress, act, and speak (the Kyoto-ben dialect makes for a lovely listen). The people are sooo wonderful too!

And of course, I cannot forget to mention all the pretty temples and various historical landmarks which are practically scattered everywhere (I used to live right next door to Toji Temple, which I think is the oldest temple in Japan..?)! Every little place has its own story to tell…

Oh, and the nightlife is pretty awesome too! I have so many memories of days (and nights) hanging out by the Kamo River with friends, those all-night karaoke stints, and them nomihoudai parties… Ahh! I miss it so much!

So, to those planning on going: GO GO GO!