One of the most iconic pictures I see of people’s travels to Kyoto are of the Torii gates in Kyoto. The Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine is considered Kyoto’s most important shrine. It was founded in 711, but the main shrine wasn’t built until 1499. At the rear of the shrine are…
On our first morning in Kyoto, we took a taxi to the pedestrian streets leading up to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple complex. We had a great time popping into the shops on the walk up to the temple. Many shops had samples so we were able to try so many Japanese…
Gion is the traditional geisha district and is what I picture as the quintessential historic Japanese area. Wooden buildings, paper lanterns, Shoji screen doors. It is so picturesque and charming and I wish we’d had more time to explore the tea houses, shops, temples, and shrines that are tucked into…
Years ago I watched the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha” and was completely taken by the scenery. The movie was partly filmed in Kyoto and the more I saw pictures of the area, the more I knew we had to visit when we went to Japan. Planning our trip there…