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Kyoto

I have been dreaming of going to Kyoto since I read Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha" many moons ago. This dream was fortified when I watched the movie version and was enthralled by the characterization and haunting scenery. After years of planning, I finally had the chance to visit Kyoto last September. I approached a "Kyoto travel expert" before leaving and asked him to recommend three temples I should visit on my first trip to this city. These were his recommendations: Kinkakuji, Kiyomizu-dera and Ryōanji . To this list I added Gion, Kyoto's famous geiko district. I had a lot on my plate with only two and a half days to spare. I thought I shoud take a bus tour so I could maximize my time. The guided tours though were quite expensive and after my introductory walk to Terramachi, I found Kyoto easy to navigate on foot and discovered that several buses stopped at most of the temples I wanted to visit.

So here's what I managed to see during my stay in Kyoto and how I got there:
Kinkakuji Temple - by bus
Kiyomizu-dera - by bus
Ryōanji Temple - by bus
Fushimi-Inari Shrine - by train
Nishi Honganji - on foot
Higashi Honganji  - on foot
Gion - by bus and on foot
Terramachi Market - on foot

In the next few weeks I'll write about these special places I visited because each one deserves a full write-up. My journey begins and ends at Kyoto Station, a city within a city. Here's a preview.
The Matrix, Kyoto Station


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Image by Charie
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