Thanks 61luv2travel, I have in fact emailed them and they will let me know when they are ready to take bookings. They have me on their list.

Following this great trip report! We too, are on the waiting list for November reservations at Hotel Mume. We are ending our 4-week trip to Japan (first timers -- I hope we're not being too ambitious. also, we are old :~) ) with a week in Kyoto. there are many sites in Kyoto we'd like to visit, and experiences to book, plus there are a couple of day trips we're interested in........on the other hand, we're holding open the possibility that we may prefer to take it slow and chill out.

I am also waiting to hear back from Hotel Mume to confirm our stay in November! We followed the same routine of requesting to be placed on the list for contact when they are ready. I really hope we get a room, I emailed back in February. Your trip report and photos are great!

I am also waiting to hear back from Hotel Mume to confirm our stay in November! We followed the same routine of requesting to be placed on the list for contact when they are ready. I really hope we get a room, I emailed back in February. Your trip report and photos are great!

The Golden Pavilion - it was definitely a worthwhile visit.

When making plans for visiting Kyoto DH and I had a tough time trying to decide on what we wanted to see. The sheer number of sites to choose from was overwhelming. However, DH was adamant that he wanted to see the Golden Pavilion. I was kind of put off by the reports of how crowded it could get. So we decided to take a taxi and get to the gates 30 min before opening time. We scheduled an early breakfast at Hotel Mume and they assisted us in hailing a cab. Breakfast was delicious - coffee, fresh squeezed OJ, a bowl of fresh and perfectly ripe fruit, a bowl of vegetable soup (cold), a hard boiled egg, yogurt and freshly baked pastries with a daily changing array of homemade jams. I loved eating this well-balanced meal every morning. After finishing, we stepped outside to our waiting taxi. I really enjoyed the experience of taking taxis in Japan. In Kyoto especially, the drivers are formally dressed with chauffeur cap, white gloves and suit. I had to practically slap DH’s hands every time he stepped in front of the driver in opening doors or dealing with the luggage. He was so used to trying to be helpful and had a hard time remembering that these taxi drivers take pride in providing full services.


We arrived at the gates of the Golden Pavilion and probably were one of the first 50 people waiting in line. This was ideal as we were able to walk through the grounds to view and enjoy the Golden Pavilion in all of its glory. I am really glad DH insisted on visiting. I was surprised by its beauty. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the Golden Pavilion glowed like a jewel surrounded by perfectly landscaped grounds. Leisurely strolling through the grounds in a relaxed manner allowed us to truly enjoy and appreciate the serene environment. As we walked out we passed the beginning tidal wave of fellow tourists just entering the complex.





A miniature model of Ryoanji's Zen rock garden.

A perfect example of a beautiful garden scene at Ryoanji

Vivid iris in full blookm at Ryoanji
We walked on to nearby Ryoanji - a Zen temple with a famous rock garden composed of 15 rocks deliberately situated in a sea of raked white pebbles. I chose to sit for a few minutes of contemplation but didn’t try to come up with an interpretation. There is something soothing about the seemingly random placement of the rocks and I was grateful that the few visitors who chose to hang out here were quiet. In the surrounding buildings of the temple we were fortunate to view the Hosokawa dragon art show. These “ 'Fusuma-e' sliding door paintings of clouds and dragons drawn by former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa that he donated to Ryoanji temple...are now open to the public for limited viewing. Covering 40 sliding doors, the epic “Unryuzu” work features powerful brush strokes to depict nine dragons and the lifespan of the mythical creatures.” (https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15029152). If you have ever visited the Freer Gallery at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington D.C. you will recognize this fascinating style of painting. Also, the fact that these captivating paintings were created by one of Japan’s former prime ministers was surprising. Last, but not least, we walked through the lovely surrounding gardens. This was another facet of the Japanese design aesthetic that I loved. The importance placed on creating a harmonious natural setting for a temple, a castle, or a shrine was consistently pursued, achieved and then maintained. It must take an enormous amount of effort to keep the grounds so pristine yet they made it seem effortless.


Hosokawa dragon painting

We chose to take a taxi to arrive at the Golden Pavilion early. The rest of our plans were more relaxed and we chose to take the bus back into central Kyoto. We entered for a self-guided tour of Nijo Castle. In the following week, as we hiked the Nakasendo Way, we would visit other castles sited at strategic locations for defensive purposes. In contrast, Nijo Castle was built for the Shogun and his family when visiting Kyoto and served a more diplomatic function. The design and the ornamentation were designed to impress and intimidate guests. There is even one room set with samurai mannequins obediently kneeling in what appears to be a meeting with the shogun (just think of scenes from the recent “Shogun” TV series). Throughout the palace are walls covered with reproductions of beautiful wall paintings of wildlife, nature and scenes of Kyoto. The originals are displayed in rotation in the official painting gallery. Even with that precaution, you are not allowed to take photos of the reproductions. The castle continues to undergo extensive restoration after earthquake damage with work on Honmaru Goten - the main palace completed in March 2024 after a 17 year restoration. The work was meticulously performed and the result is nothing short of amazing. Prior to our visit I wasn’t even aware that this work was being done. In retrospect I feel fortunate that we visited after they reopened Honmaru Goten.


On the grounds of Nijo Castle

Karamon Gate - Nijo Castle

close-up of Karamon Gate



By this point we were starving so we set off to have lunch at Coco Curry. This is another chain restaurant on my checklist of places that I wanted to try. I love Japanese curry. I chose the pork cutlet curry with rice. Typical of a popular chain restaurant, the food was inexpensive, quick to be served and quite delicious. Very satisfied and also congratulating ourselves on how little we spent on our meal, we proceeded onward to Nishiki Market. This was another destination that we asked ourselves, “Should we visit or should we skip?” Since it was on our way back to our hotel we figured we should just walk through to see it. While it was interesting it was of course completely jam packed. What did we expect on a Saturday afternoon? Since we were already full from lunch we just looked but didn’t buy from the huge arrays of food - tempura, seafood, mochi, cookies, fresh produce, giant strawberries, and so on.


Coco Curry - a simple but delicious and filling meal.

Nishiki Market - this narrow thruway became progressively more packed the further in we walked.





By the time we arrived back at Hotel Mume we were pretty wiped out. The staff were very solicitous - bringing us iced coffee and ice tea as we sat in the back dining area cooling off and resting. Later that evening one of the staff walked with us to Tempura Yamamoto where we had a dinner reservation. It was only a 5 minute walk but the entrance is a bit tucked away. We had realized even from our brief time in Tokyo that just because the GPS said you had reached your destination you still needed to figure out which floor the store/restaurant/museum was located on - otherwise you could wander aimlessly for quite some time, especially if your destination was located in the basement. Our dinner at Tempura Yamamoto was quite extensive. We made a somewhat strategic error as our later lunch at Coco Curry had been very filling. As you can see by the photos we had course after amazing course of tempura, accompanied by excellent sake. I was very embarrassed and apologetic to the chef that I exhibited bad manners as I literally could not finish my dinner. DH tried to take up the slack but he was pretty full from eating his portion. Afterward DH made me walk around the Gion district for a bit so that we could digest our meal before heading back to the hotel to once again collapse into bed.


First course - Tempura Yamamoto















Next up - Day 8 - 20,000 steps while getting a bit lost in Kyoto

millie2112, adlmllr and francebound - hoping that all of you will be able to book a stay at Hotel Mume. I can't say enough praise about the staff. The hotel itself has so much character and is such a tranquil oasis.

Thank you so much for posting this amazing trip report. I am in the early stages of planning a trip to Japan and so I am really loving all the foodie and practical details you are including,

We are getting a bit old a creaky and will probably take taxis a bit to save our legs for the places themselves, Do you happen to remember the rough sort of price the taxis you took (e.g. the one from Mume to Golden temple) were ?

Also wondering what background reading (or film or you tube etc) e.g. on culture and history you found most useful before you went ?

Thanks

Proof that we actually hit an empty stretch at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

Again we decided to bite the bullet and travel out to see Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Knowing that this was another one of those tourist’s hot spots we ate our delicious Mume breakfast and again took a taxi to arrive relatively early. Since Arashiyama is always open we knew that unless we arrived around sunrise there would be more tourists. However, even though we arrived around 9AM we could see that there was only one 1 large tourist bus parked in the nearby lot. We were not packed like sardines and we had a relatively pleasant walk through the forest. To me it was kind of weird as there are homes surrounding the forest and you don’t really feel as if you are completely in the midst of nature. On the other hand, the bamboo towers impressively over you. Once we reached the end of the forest, I actually think we enjoyed the 40 min walk as we continued on through the back streets to reach Otagi Nenbutsu-ji more than the Bamboo Forest. Even though it was uphill, we passed many beautiful homes with well tended gardens as well as a few shops that were preparing to open. The residents that we encountered would greet us with a “Konichiwa” as we passed by. We also passed a number of other Buddhist temples that were also preparing to open.

Flowering wisteria on the way to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji


During our early planning, I didn’t think we would be able to visit Otagi Nenbutsu-ji so I was happy that it worked out. This particular temple is inhabited by 1200 individually carved Rakan stone statues - disciples of Buddha. It was a lot of fun to sit and pick out individual favorites. Everywhere you turned there would be more groupings of these Rakan statues - some looked as if they were having a party, some sat in individual contemplation and some just looked sleepy or bored.

I thought he looked a bit creepy.

Group meditation?

I can't help it - he looks like a Minion to me.

Groups of Rakan were situated everywhere.


Afterward, we caught a bus to travel back down to the entrance of Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. From there we walked across the Togetsukyo bridge over the Katsura River. Since we were still in the midst of Golden Week there were many families out enjoying themselves - picnicking, flying kites, snapping photos. It was very festive.

Crossing the Katsura River via the Togetsukyo Bridge


We boarded the JR Sagano train back to downtown Kyoto. Here we managed to confuse ourselves as once we reached the terminus, we needed to board a bus to keep traveling eastward to reach the Silver Pavilion. We finally thought we had it figured out and settled down to enjoy our 40 min bus ride. After 15 min, DH noticed that the time of arrival on Google Maps was getting longer and longer instead of counting down. We were going the wrong way . We disembarked and managed to find the bus going in the right direction but now we were looking at over an hour spent on the bus. Oh well, our feet did not mind sitting for an hour. DH had unfortunately bought new trail shoes and did NOT break them in before the trip. With all of the walking we had done he had developed blisters so the bus ride was a welcome break. Once we arrived in the area we first headed to Omen Gingaku-ji. A very popular udon noodle house, we were fortunate that we had arrived after the lunch rush (I guess the extra bus time helped in more ways than one) and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. Once we were ushered in we were seated upstairs where we could sit in chairs at tables (as opposed to traditional seating on tatami mats). We each chose a set meal with cold noodles. The staff even hand you a laminated card that has instructions as to how to eat the meal since there are various seasonings to use prior to dipping your noodles in the sauce. This was another delicious meal and we quickly slurped our way to empty bowls.

Omen Noodles: Cold udon noodles just waiting to be eaten!

Once fortified, we made our way to what I thought was the Silver Pavilion. Instead, DH wanted to walk a little ways down the Philosopher’s Path just to see what it was like. It was fairly crowded and we decided that we didn’t feel the need to force ourselves to walk it. We then turned and headed to the Silver Pavilion. In the end we decided that we liked the gardens of the Silver Pavilion more than the building itself. I think the beautifully shining Golden Pavilion spoiled me for anything else. Call me shallow if you will. We caught a bus which traveled straight down the street with a nearby stop to Hotel Mume. We gratefully entered through the bright red door and took a rest break in the dining area. Again the staff brought us iced tea (for me) and iced coffee (for DH) while we sat and relaxed while looking out the picture windows at the stream rushing through the canal just outside the backyard of the hotel. We spent some time talking to Kisako Shibata, the owner of Mume. What a lovely woman! She has led a fascinating life and we had a wonderful time experiencing her warm hospitality.


Drinks to accompany our izikaya meal at Gion Kappa
After this refreshing break, the staff gave us printed out directions to the Gion Kaburenjo Theater to watch the Miyaki Odori dance performance. Both maiko (apprentice geisha) and full fledged geisha participate in a performance that includes theater, music, and dance while beautifully dressed in their kimonos. You are not allowed to take any photos once the performance starts. If you look at their website (https://miyako-odori.jp/) you will see what a beautiful presentation we were privileged to experience. As I noted before, I barely made it to obtain tickets and we were sitting all the way in the back. The Japanese woman seated next to me was wearing a beautiful kimono and would sometimes gently gesture in synchronization with the performers. I don’t know if she has just seen the performance so many times but she seemed to know the show by heart. Afterwards, DH and I walked to our reservation at Gion Kappa, a popular izakaya. These restaurants serve drinks along with small plates. We were again seated at the counter where we could watch all of the action. The place was super busy, but the staff quickly brought us an English menu and served us quickly and efficiently. We really loved our meal here as we were able to choose amongst a wide range of offerings. As you can see from the photos, the food both looked and tasted delicious.


Gion Kappa: Baby squid

Chicken and onion yakitori

Cucumber with soybean paste

Grilled octopus

Tofu

Duck


Afterwards we passed Yasaka Shrine as we walked back to Hotel Mume quite satisfied and not overly full. We then gathered up our laundry and headed back out to wash our clothes so as to be prepared for the 2nd half of our trip - the Nakasendo Way. Again, both Nana and Ms. Shibata were very detailed in making sure that we knew where to find the nearest laundromat. They noted that the newest addition was a little bit further on but was quite good. This info was helpful since the closer laundromat had fewer machines and all were taken when we arrived. The new laundromat had plenty of empty machines of various sizes. We chose one of the larger machines (not even the largest) and put everything into the one machine. We had collected plenty of change along the way (Hint - don’t forget to bring a coin purse to Japan or make sure to buy a cute one soon after arrival!) and fed the machine. It then proceeded to do everything in one go: added detergent, washed and then on to drying. I conked out and had a nice nap while sitting and waiting for our clothes. We folded and toted them back and packed up for our early morning departure the next day.


Yasaka Shrine


Next up: Day 9: 19,000 steps - Start of Life’s An Adventure tour

loncall - we debated whether to hire a driver to try to be more efficient about getting around Kyoto - it is so awkward between how sites are spread out and the number of places you can choose to see. In the end we decided we wouldn't try to make this into some kind of marathon temple hunt and would pick and choose. For the sites with the history of the most crowding we chose to go early and to take a taxi. From my receipts it looks as if the taxi from Hotel Mume to the Golden Pavilion - early on a Saturday morning - was about $25. We thought it was worth it and the remainder of the day we took public transportation or walked.

With regards to research, I actually didn't really do any background reading on culture and history. I know a little bit just from exposure through friends. Most of what I learn I would pick up from just extensively searching on the web. Since you are starting early you should have plenty of time to "absorb" information - though I admit it is a lot.

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I am pleased to hear that taxis are not prohibitively expensive. I think sometimes it is worth the money just to maximise the enjoyment of the day particularly if you have an early start scheduled !

Your photos are really great, they make me want to go now not next year !

loncall, a good ref is japan-guide.com - Japan Travel and Living Guide

they have a yt channel

Looks like you had a good introduction to Kyoto, although the food, OMG...

Day 9 -


Lobby of Hotel Mume - Beautfiul fresh flowers that we had seen Ms. Shibata personally arranging the day before.


We savored our last Hotel Mume breakfast before our departure. Again the wonderful staff assisted us in arranging for a taxi to the Royal Park Hotel Sanjo where we would meet our Life’s An Adventure (LAA) guides and fellow hikers. We said our final farewells to our friends at Hotel Mume.


Our wonderful Life's An Adventure guides - Kiyomi and Quinlan ("Q")

The Royal Park Hotel Sanjo is a modern, centrally located hotel that served as both our initial meet up spot as well as our first night tour accommodations. We met our two wonderful guides. The first one, Quinlan or “Q” for short was actually an expat from Madison, Wisconsin. He had met and married his Japanese wife, their son was currently in the US attending college. Q could speak Japanese fluently. If I remember correctly this was Q’s first time as the tour leader for this particular trip route. He was a great tour guide - kind, patient, enthusiastic, cheerful, knowledgeable and an avid forager. He was always pointing out plants along the way that were used for food or medicinal purposes. While hiking we had time to discuss his perspective on what it was like for him to live in Japan. Our second guide, Kiyomi, was also a wonderful tour guide - native Japanese, he had been an international banker in his former life and now in retirement was a self-proclaimed “castle geek”. Completely fluent in English, he was able to provide us background information and context - historical, cultural, religious, geographical as we visited various sites along the way. In our group there were 13 people total - 7 of us Americans who had signed up together, 4 Aussies, and 2 Brits. We were all English speaking and none of us spoke Japanese. Four of the group had just finished the Kumano Kodo with LAA and honestly, the Nakasendo Way was not rigorous enough for them. Our American group on the other hand was much less experienced and found this hike sufficiently challenging with many bonus features added in along the way.


Our group begins the trek through the torii gates of Fushimi Inari



Less expensive sponsored torii gates

Foxes are considered the special messengers of Inari and act as guardians of the shrine.

After the initial meet and greet we clambered onto the “microbus” (I didn’t think it was that “micro” since it could transport 16 passengers plus all of our luggage and backpacks). Our first day was to be spent visiting what I would consider to be the last of the top 3 sites in Kyoto - Fushimi Inari. Since we had reviewed the itinerary (https://www.lifesanadventure.com.au/...endo-way-walk/) we knew we wouldn’t have to make separate plans to visit. (The other 2 must see sites for us were the Golden Pavilion and Arashiyama Bamboo Forest). We arrived with the crowds but maybe because you have to start climbing upwards it wasn’t too claustrophobic. The further we climbed the fewer the numbers of visitors who opted to keep going. Our group worked our way up the 12,000 steps and through the 10,000 torii gates. Kiyomi pointed out the inscriptions that were written on the backs of each of the torii gates. I would have thought they would be uplifting words of wisdom. But no - the inscriptions contained information about the particular donor and date of donation for that particular gate. As a means to give thanks and to ask for blessings, sponsoring a large torii gate can cost over a million yen. If the gate begins to show signs of decay the sponsor can pay to have it repaired. We did see empty spaces where a torii gate had been removed and a new one had not yet been sponsored to replace it.

View of Kyoto from the summit of Mt. Inari


On my down you can see the inscriptions on the back of the torii gates.


Once we reached the peak we had another bird’s eye view of the surrounding city of Kyoto. I was always intrigued by the striking juxtaposition of the modern city of Kyoto side by side with ancient temples and shrines and castles. It was a cloudy day and the weather forecast had predicted rain starting around noon. We had managed to stay relatively cool without the bright sun beating down on us and as we returned down to the base we felt sprinkles of rain - even the Japanese weather forecast was punctual! We were taken to Cafe Mokuren and told we could choose whatever we wanted from the extensive menu. This was my opportunity to have omurice - Japanese omelet rice with beef stew. I know this is a simple dish but I have seen this presented in many Japanese dramas and wanted to eat it in Japan - lol. It was quite good - the egg was very light and fluffy.

My delicious omurice with beef stew.

After lunch we returned to the Royal Park Hotel Sanjo to officially check in and rest a bit. We gathered in the later afternoon and had a mini tour of the Gion district as we walked to our ultimate destination to dress in kimonos and to participate in a traditional tea ceremony. There were 10 women in the group and it was funny, interesting and surprisingly efficient how this particular shop was able to process all of us. It was like an assembly line - strip in curtained stalls to underwear and then dress in a light silk robe. Then move on to the hair styling station with placement of paper flowers, then select a kimono, then move on to the woman who wrapped me up in the kimono with about 5 thin silk ties - I felt like a trussed up chicken by that point. Then it was on to have the obi wrapped and tied and voila! I was ready to meet DH. Surprisingly, sight unseen, we picked exactly the same colors. Now came the hard part - we were taken to a large room filled with tatami mats. The staff did offer to give us small stools, but for whatever reason none of us wanted to admit that we might be so old that sitting on the floor would be hard. But OMG, it was kind of tortuous - for the next 45 minutes I kept shifting - from kneeling, to pulling my legs to the side, to trying to sit cross-legged in a modest way with my kimono, and back to kneeling again. Our instructor was so very graceful and precise in demonstrating how to prepare tea. I was unable to flick my wrist fast enough to produce the froth that indicated the tea was properly mixed. Somehow DH did it readily. The green tea was quite intense. DH and I don’t have issues with caffeine; however, some of my friends noted that they just couldn’t fall asleep that night because they had drunk too much of the tea so late in the day.

DH's kimono was the same burgundy as my obi and his hakama was navy blue so we matched perfectly!

Isn't my friend's kimono both beautiful and cute?

Individual setting of tea and treats.

Our tea ceremony instructor.

After we had disrobed and returned to modern day dress we set out for our group dinner reservation. On the way we stopped in front of the most prestigious tea house in Kyoto. In his former life as a banker, Kiyomi had actually been an invited guest to this tea house. He was able to not only describe the experience but also showed us some formal photographs of the group posing with the geishas. Part of the mystery of the tea houses lies in the fact that you have to be invited to ever be able to enter. Membership is quite exclusive. I do think it is rather ironic that this custom seems to support a patriarchal male dominated power structure, but I kept my thoughts to myself.


View from the Shijo Bridge crossing the Kamogama River - on our way to dinner

We arrived at Premium Robata Sanda for the first of what would be nightly over the top kaiseki meals. Take a look at the photos and you will see what I mean. This tour definitely did not skimp on the meals. Throughout there was never the chance that you would go hungry!


Premium Robata Sando

Clever solution to allow safe delivery of each dish across the wide countertop.










After dinner, DH and I stopped at a drug store where DH ended up buying 6 boxes of bandaids for his poor toes. He knew he needed to have protection for the blisters as we would be hiking for the next 7 days!

Next up: Day 10 - only 9,000 steps as we start off on our "back again" trek from Kyoto to Tokyo

tripplanner001 - this was just the beginning as you can see from the next post. Thank goodness for all of the exercise - I still managed to lose a couple of pounds despite eating enormous meals every day.

Thanks I will enjoy exploring these.

The dates on the back of the Fushimi Inari gates are written in accordance to the year of the emperor's reign, so even though I could read the writing, I had a hard time figuring out the years, but did have a general sense. For example, the one closest in the photo says Reiwa second year October, so my guess is that it's 2021.

good guess. Reiwa 2 is 2020. here is the translated rotated image, click on it twice and should see it in higher res, or download and open

Three of the posts on the right are from "Takeyuki" dated 2020, 1955, and 2018.

This is so interesting - I like the superimposition of the translated inscriptions. I think I was so caught up in trying to make it to the top and back down again I kind of lost sight of the fact that the whole point is to walk through these gates with an attitude of reverence and gratitude. We did start the walk up with bows of respect.

Also, thank you for the YT links - I watched a lot of different explanatory videos on YT - from how to navigate Tokyo Station to mini street food tours. I also found Instagram to be somewhat helpful - though watching all the food Reels would just make me hungrier and hungrier. You can tell I am dating myself since I am not on Tik-tok.

I was curious where (or what) "Takeyuki" is.

Since there was no plausible answer from Google search results, I went back to look at the original inscription.

The last two characters, "建之," mean "was built." Thus, the inscription says that on a certain auspicious year and month, this torii gate was built.

Google Translate is not perfect yet, but I could not have survived my past trips to Japan without it.